Electronics Supply Chain Weekly Digest 6-13-25.
DATAPOINT OF THE WEEK: Car retail sales in China remained strong in May with Y/Y trends consistent since the start of the year. Passenger car retail sales in China increased 10.1% M/M and 13.3% Y/Y to 1.93M in May, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
NEV retail sales reached 1.02M units, slightly below preliminary estimates of 1.06M, representing an increase of 13% M/M and 27% Y/Y. This is the first month since Dec-24 where NEV sales surpassed 1M.
BEV sales totaled 607k units, up 8.6% M/M and 23% Y/Y. PHEVs continued strong growth that has been seen the past three months with sales totaling 414k, up 19.7% M/M and 34% Y/Y. NEV penetration stood at 52.8%, up 5.8 percentage points Y/Y and 1.2 percentage points M/M. NEV exports totaled 200K units, more than doubling Y/Y.
Headlines:
Auto/Transportation
- BYD flags unsustainable EV price war but signals no shift in pricing strategy
- China to enforce Level 2 ADAS safety standards amid rising accident concerns, according to DigiTimes
- China’s top automakers pledge 60-day supplier payments to ease supply chain strains
- Ford faces production shutdowns amid rare earth magnet shortages
- Geely halts new plant builds amid global auto overcapacity concerns
- GM to invest $4B in US gas vehicle production, reversing EV expansion plans
- Hyundai has 1 year rare earth stockpile to weather China export curbs, according to Reuters
- India’s EV production faces halt risk amid rare earth export delays from China, says S&P
- Nissan and Toyota gain traction in China EV market with strong localized sales
- China’s rare earth export controls disrupt global auto manufacturing, prompting urgent supply diversification
- Stellantis secure through June amid China rare earth export restrictions
- Trump signals possible US auto tariff hikes, reverses California gas car ban rules
- US vehicle inventory stable in May as sales pace normalizes with rising prices, according to Cox Automotive
- US automotive imports by sea drop 70% Y/Y in May after April tariffs, says DigiTimes
- XPeng launches G7, world’s first AI-powered Level 3 vehicle with in-house Turing chip
Datacenter
- Amazon to invest $20B in Pennsylvania data centers to boost AI and cloud services
- Crusoe to invest $400M in AMD AI chips for US liquid-cooled datacenter by Fall 2025
- US datacenter power demand surges, straining grid and prompting reliability warnings
- Oracle boosts FY26 forecast to $67B on surging AI-driven cloud demand
Industrial
- US solar outlook dims amid tariffs, policy shifts, and tax credit uncertainty
Semiconductors
- AMD unveils MI400 AI chips and Helios server to challenge Nvidia’s dominance, to launch in 2026
- AMD nears 40% server CPU market share, eyes 50% milestone by 2026, according to Mercury Research
- US warns Huawei’s AI chip output capped at 200k for 2025 as China narrows tech gap
- Intel sets 50% margin mandate for new products to boost profitability and focus resources, according to Tom’s Hardware
- Micron to invest additional $30B in US chip manufacturing, total commitment reaches $200B
- Micron delays $100B New York mega fab to late 2025 amid extended environmental review
- NXP to phase out 8-inch fabs in US and Netherlands, shifts to advanced 12-inch production
- Qualcomm completes acquisition of Autotalks to boost connected car chip portfolio
- Qualcomm to acquire Alphawave for $2.4B to expand AI data center chip business
- Wolfspeed cuts 73 jobs at Salisbury plant amid weakening SiC chip demand
Consumer/Other
- US and Mexico negotiate partial rollback of Trump-era steel tariffs with quota limits
- Global smartphone production dips 3% in 1Q25, with China subsidies aiding shipments, says TrendForce
- US seaborne imports from China drop 28.5% Y/Y in May after tariff hike, according to data from Descartes Datamyne