1. Texas Instruments: The car core is a bright spot, and customers in other industries continue to cut orders
According to the Science and Technology Board Daily on the 26th, Texas Instruments (TI) CEO Haviv Ilan said that the automotive industry chips became a bright spot in the second quarter. Like the previous quarter, all end markets except the automotive industry suffered from sluggish demand. Customers in other industries continue to cut chip orders, and they want to deplete existing inventories first.
Rafael Lizard, chief financial officer of TI, said that customers cut orders, leading to an increase in TI’s own chip inventory. The current inventory has climbed to 207 days, and the value of inventory goods in the third quarter will continue to rise. However, unlike other chip manufacturers, Texas Instruments’ analog chips have a long storage period (even up to 10 years). Therefore, the current high inventory can solve the sudden increase in future market demand.
2. SK Hynix’s operating loss in the second quarter was 2.8821 trillion won
South Korean memory manufacturer SK Hynix released its financial report for the second quarter of 2023 on July 26, with revenue of 7.3059 trillion won, operating loss of 2.8821 trillion won, and net loss of 2.9879 trillion won. The operating loss margin for the second quarter of fiscal 2023 was 39%, and the net loss margin was 41%.
SK Hynix revealed that the sales volume of both DRAM and NAND increased significantly in the second quarter. In particular, the average selling price of DRAM increased compared with the previous quarter, which had a great impact on the increase in operating income. Although the prices of ordinary DRAMs such as DDR4 continued to decline due to the weakening of the PC and smartphone markets, the overall ASP of DRAMs increased compared to the first quarter due to the high prices and sales growth of high-configuration products used in AI servers.
Therefore, SK hynix intends to continue to improve sales performance in the future, focusing on HBM3, high-performance DDR5 and LPDDR5 DRAM and other AI-used memories, and SSDs based on 176-layer NAND flash memory, thereby accelerating the improvement in the second half of the year. In addition, SK Hynix will increase the initial mass production yield and quality of the fifth-generation 10nm-level (1b) DRAM and 238-layer NAND flash memory this year, and rapidly increase the proportion of mass production when the upcoming market conditions improve. However, the company believes that the destocking speed of NAND flash memory is slower than that of DRAM, so it decided to expand the production reduction scale of NAND products.
3. Passenger Association: New energy retail sales are expected to reach 620,000 in July, with a penetration rate of about 35.8%
According to the latest forecast data released by the Passenger Passenger Association, the retail sales of passenger cars in the narrow sense of the Passenger Passenger Association completed 1.894 million units in June, which was higher than previous expectations. Affected by the ultra-high base stimulated by the purchase tax in the same period last year, it decreased by 2.6% year-on-year and increased by 8.7% month-on-month, maintaining the monthly growth trend in the first half of the year. There were 665,000 new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 25.2%, and a penetration rate of 35.1%. In the first half of the year, the retail sales of passenger vehicles in the narrow sense reached 9.524 million, a year-on-year increase of 2.7%, and the retail sales of new energy vehicles were 3.086 million, a year-on-year increase of 37.3%, with a penetration rate of 32.4%.
Due to the release of a wave of interested users accumulated in the first half of the year in June, and the market heat has a certain inertia, and some orders in June were transferred to July for delivery, the market demand in July dropped slightly, but the overall performance was relatively stable and normal seasonal trend. In summary, it is estimated that the retail sales of passenger vehicles in the narrow sense in July are expected to be 1.73 million units, a decrease of 8.6% month-on-month and a decrease of 4.8% year-on-year, of which about 620,000 new energy retail sales, a decrease of 6.8% month-on-month, a year-on-year increase of 27.5%, and a penetration rate of about 35.8% .
4. The European Union passed the 43 billion euro chip bill
According to IT House news, on July 25 local time, the European Council issued a statement stating that the European Council today approved regulations to “strengthen the European semiconductor ecosystem”, namely the “EU Chip Act”, which was announced earlier this month. Adopted by the European Parliament, the final step in the decision-making process.
The “EU Chip Act” plan will mobilize 43 billion euros of public and private investment, of which 3.3 billion euros will come from the EU budget, with the goal of increasing the EU’s share of the global semiconductor market from the current 10% to at least 20% by 2030. At present, many companies including Intel and STMicroelectronics have announced the establishment of new factories in Europe.
5. Yageo: Revenue in the second quarter decreased, and inventory adjustment will continue
According to the Taiwan Business Times, the passive component manufacturer Yageo announced its second-quarter financial report, with consolidated revenue of NT$26.757 billion and net profit after tax of NT$3.73 billion, a decrease of 9.7% from the previous quarter and a decrease of 37.1% from the same period last year. Yageo’s consolidated revenue in the first half of the year was NT$52.852 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 14%, and net profit after tax was NT$7.861 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 35.4%.
Yageo’s inventory amounted to 25.349 billion yuan in the last quarter. In terms of inventory turnover days, it will decrease from 136 days to 129 days. In the third quarter, Yageo will continue to strictly control inventory by controlling the utilization rate. The utilization rate reaches 40%-50%, and the utilization rate of high-end niche products reaches 70%.
Although the third quarter is the traditional peak season, Yageo admitted that the demand for consumer electronics such as NB, PC and smart phones is still weak, and the recovery is not strong. Wang Danru, Yageo’s general manager, estimated that the third quarter revenue, crop The turnover rate will remain the same as in the second quarter, and the gross profit margin and profit margin are expected to grow slightly. Overall, the inventory adjustment will continue for another one to two quarters.