Electronics Supply Chain Weekly Digest 5-10-24.
DATAPOINT OF THE WEEK: Passenger car retail sales in China totaled 1.53M in April, down 7% Y/Y and down 9% M/M and below the preliminary estimates of 1.59M units, according to China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
Aside from Feb when sales declined Y/Y due to CNY, April marks the first Y/Y decline in retail sales since July-23 with total volume being the 2nd lowest for the month over the last 4 years.
NEV retail sales totaled 674K units, below last week’s preliminary estimates of 706k and 720k estimate from two weeks ago. NEV increased 28% Y/Y with BEV up 12% Y/Y and PHEV up 64% Y/Y. NEV penetration increased to 44% in April from 42% in March. Total exports increased 2% M/M while NEV exports dropped 4% M/M to 115k units.
Since the beginning of the year, China’s auto market has seen a wave of price cuts on new products and a strong wait-and-see sentiment among consumers. Market sluggishness was worse than expected, while some automakers still strived to keep producing, resulting in rising inventories at dealerships, the CPCA said.
Headlines:
Auto
- France welcomes BYD to open factory in the country
- China Auto exports to Europe getting stuck in ports
- Continental swings into profit loss in 1Q on delays in programs, slower production and price resets
- French carmakers target fourfold jump in EV sales by 2027
- Ford rethinks 2030 goal to go all-electric in Europe
- EU tariffs on Chinese EVs could backfire, German car bosses warn
- Magna sees $400M in lost sales from production cuts at Fisker
- Nio on track to unveil its first mass-market car in May
- Automakers win extension on use of Chinese graphite in EV tax credits
- Tesla lays off more staff in a fourth round of cuts; incremental cuts also in China
- Tesla April shipments in China declined 20% Y/Y vs the market growing 30%
- VW offers €900 million in buyouts to trim German payroll
- US could ban Chinese connected vehicles or impose restrictions
Datacenter
- Amazon to spend nearly $9 bln to expand cloud infra in Singapore
Semiconductors
- Apple is working on its own AI chip for Data centers, per WSJ
- GlobalFoundries forecasts Q2 revenue, profit above estimates on chip market recovery
- Diode Inc misses 1Q forecasts; sees signs of demand recovery in Compute and Consumer; plans to maintain high inventory
- Intel bought all of ASML’s High-NA EUV machines for 2024
- Infineon unveils deep cost-cutting drive amid waning chip demand
- Infineon supplies silicon carbide (SiC) power modules to Xiaomi new SU7 smart EV
- Infineon cuts its full year outlook on destocking in Auto and Industrial; highlights design wins in AI
- US government revokes Intel and Qualcomm licenses to sell to Huawei
- Microchip guides 2Q down Q/Q but sees demand bottoming; touts 64-bit MCU launch
- Global semi sales increased 15.2% in March according to SIA
- US to triple chipmaking capacity by 2032 says SIA
- China’s SMIC warns of ‘fierce’ competition as it misses quarterly profit expectations
- Vishay guides to flat 2Q revenue; touts design wins; capacity expansion tracking to plan to grow more than 10% in 2024
- TSMC reported strong April revenue
Other
- Apple’s iPhone shipments in China rebound with 12% surge in March after price cuts
- Maersk says Red Sea disruption could cut Asia-Europe capacity by 20%
- Foxconn reiterates Q2 revenue to grow, posts record April sales