Nowadays, under the complex and changeable international trade forms and the continuous impact of the COVID-19, the cost of normal production and operation of enterprises is rising. At the same time, the price of LED driver chips is rising again, and the development of the industry is difficult.
It is understood that the LED driver chip is the brain of LED devices. It is by relying on the driver chip to control the sequence of light-emitting diodes that the LED can adjust its optical, color, transmission and other functions. Therefore, the price rise of LED driver chips can be described as "pulling one hair and moving the whole body".
Price is the signal light of the market. In fact, the price rise of LED driver chips in 2022 and the price rise from the end of 2020 to 2021 are under different backgrounds.
Crazy 2021: supply and demand imbalance, "rising" everywhere
First, let's review the price rise of LED industry in 2021.
At that time, under the comprehensive influence of external factors such as epidemic situation, trade friction and inflation, as well as internal factors such as tight supply, the price of the whole LED industry chain increased to varying degrees, from raw materials, chips, driving ICs and devices to display screens and lamps.
As for the link of LED driver chip, its price has increased since 2020, and the reason for the price increase is the sharp contradiction between supply and demand.
On the one hand, it is the terminal application link. Since the third quarter of 2020, the market demand for distance education and telecommuting has risen; The demand for mobile phones, computers, health lighting and other products related to the housing economy also continued to rise; Emerging applications such as plant lighting, mini / micro led and UVC LED are developing well.
The other is the market link. At that time, the production capacity of foreign manufacturers was seriously impacted by the epidemic, while China's epidemic prevention and control was appropriate, and the production and operation activities were resumed earlier, which accelerated the concentration of global manufacturing capacity to the Chinese market, and China's LED market ushered in a peak demand.
As the upstream of LED driver chips, the shortage of wafer foundry and packaging and testing capacity is even more stretched.
With insufficient supply and surging demand, it is not difficult to understand the rise in the price of LED driver chips. It is reported that led driver chip enterprises such as Jichuang north, Jingfeng Mingyuan, Fuman micro, Shilan micro and Ming microelectronics have raised product prices for many times since the third quarter of 2020.
The surge in prices continued for months. Until August 2021, with the expansion of the wafer factory, the production capacity of LED driver chips gradually increased, while the growth rate of terminal demand including mini / micro led, plant lighting and outdoor lighting did not meet expectations. The contradiction between supply and demand of LED driver chips was finally alleviated and the price stopped rising.
It should be noted that the three companies did not announce the performance of LED driver chip business in each quarter, but led driver chip business accounted for a high proportion of revenue among the three companies.
Among them, the core products of Jingfeng Mingyuan are led lighting driver chips. From 2020 to 2021, the revenue of LED driver chip business in Jingfeng Mingyuan was 93.84% and 92.14% respectively; The of Ming microelectronics are 96.70% and 70.38% respectively; Fuman micro has diversified businesses, including four main lines: fast charging chip, LED driver chip, 5g RF products and MCU (shipped in the third quarter of 2021). Among them, the revenue of LED driver chips accounted for 46.67% in 2020 and increased to 59.47% in 2021.
Therefore, the changes of LED driver chip business in each quarter can be roughly estimated according to the changes of the overall revenue and net profit of the three enterprises.
It can be seen that the second and third quarters of 2021 are the peak of the growth of the revenue scale of LED driver chip manufacturers and the net profit attributable to the shareholders of listed companies, while there was a decline in the fourth quarter, which reflects that the supply and demand environment of LED driver chips is returning to normal.
In this market context, the price of LED driver chips should gradually return to the normal level, but this is not the case. The price rise of LED driver chips has not stopped.
