Probe Into The Current Situation Of Electronic Industry: Shortage Of Components, Continuous Rise Of Information Innovation Ecology

At the end of March, the price rising wave of the chip industry chain came again, including wafer factories, design plants and other related companies. Among them, there is also a letter from TSMC's president to the chip designer informing him to cancel the annual wafer price reduction for the first time.

During the recent 9th China electronic information Expo (cite2021 for short), a chip design businessman told the reporter of the 21st century economic report that although the impact of price hikes such as wafer foundry is not so direct, there will be feedback slowly.

He further explained that even if the increase in OEM costs is not large, but in the case of unclear delivery date, the relative downstream design plants have to increase the price in order to obtain products as soon as possible.

This is a microcosm, reflecting that the current electronic industry chain is in a very hot and short state. On the one hand, domestic inter industry companies are actively raising funds to cope with the situation, on the other hand, they are expanding symbiosis in the upstream of the industrial chain. In the past two years, the information innovation industry ecology has been gradually bred.

2020 is the first year of the implementation of the information and innovation industry. Many domestic departments have issued a number of measures to promote the development of the industry. The core point is to build its own capacity of the electronic industry ecology.

According to the white paper on the development of China's information and innovation industry (2021), the market space of China's computing industry will reach 104.3 billion US dollars in 2023, close to 10% of the world's. According to 50% of the Xinchuang market scale, the scale of China's Xinchuang market will exceed 365 billion yuan in 2023, which is expected to release a trillion level market scale in 2030.

Under the huge market ecology and the rapid change of industrial chain supply and demand adjustment, the test of R & D and link ability of domestic companies is imminent.

Price rise of components continues

A number of cite exhibitors have told the 21st century economic reporter that under the trend of rising prices in a series of industrial links including upstream raw materials, the overall trend of price increase has become inevitable.

"All links are rising, and the price of packaging materials without technical content is rising." An exhibitor pointed out to reporters that most of the links in China are out of stock, and the company can barely keep up with the pace of demand.

Another exhibitor of Shenzhen's own chip production line told reporters, for example, that the raw materials for chip packaging must be copper, but the latest data shows that the price of copper has increased by more than 30%, resulting in the doubling of the price of packaging framework; another major raw material, silicon chip, has a similar impact logic. In addition, there are labor costs, environmental costs, etc., which affect the price fluctuations of the entire chip ecology.

At the same time, it takes time to produce silicon wafers. "It will take about 6 months to gradually purify the sand to the silicon wafer; even if the OEM plant increases the equipment, it will take 2-3 years for the real commissioning to mature. It's not going to happen quickly. " The celebrity continued.

Of course, from a different point of view, the supply chain tension on the one hand tests the collaborative ability of the domestic industrial chain, but also improves the management ability of domestic electronic industry companies.

Zhang Wei, general manager of Tongfang Xinchuang business group, told 21st century economic news that in order to cope with the shortage of components supply, Tongfang shares had accumulated a lot of reserves based on the global supply and demand performance at the upstream chip level. In addition, in terms of open source, Tongfang also has the ability to gather the whole industry to deal with the current problems such as the shortage of chips and the rise of raw materials prices.

"The domestic chip industry is developing rapidly and has a wide range of options. We are actively promoting chip adaptation." He added that Tongfang has established a joint adaptation group with Huawei, Feiteng and other companies, and the company is ready for scientific response.

"Not just for the present. In the development of Tongfang many years ago, Tongfang has experience in supply chain management based on x86 architecture, and has a complete set of management logic and organizational structure based on the arrangement of production cycle and control of market cycle According to reports, due to the large scale of computer hardware, Tongfang has carried out meticulous management according to production, after-sales, service and other system levels in the initial development process.

The original factory of upstream storage also has obvious feeling. Liu Gang, vice president of Western data company and general manager of China business, told 21st century economic reporter, "we find that customers will improve their ability to supply and deliver goods after being tested by supply, and make longer-term and more specific planning."

He further exemplified that some downstream customers submitted planning requirements on a quarterly basis, which has now been extended to one year. "Because the lead time of some parts is 13-26 weeks, or even 30-40 weeks, this will put forward higher requirements on the supply chain management of domestic manufacturers, and they need to manage expectations more accurately from a longer period of time."

Liu Gang pointed out to reporters that the domestic industrial ecology has become more and more skilled, which is not only reflected in the equipment manufacturers, but also in the downstream cloud service providers.

"For example, the cloud service in the head will come to us directly and tell us what the next storage requirements are. We also tell them in advance when the latest products will come out, and even provide testing when there are engineering samples. " In this way, when western data has new storage products, downstream manufacturers can shorten the adjustment time of switching technology as much as possible, he said.

"This includes early communication on technology and supply chain, which will be more in-depth and long-term than before. In the past, we would not talk to suppliers about (fine to) component level (demand), but now they will do early technology and supply planning for key components including computing and storage, rather than directly waiting for equipment manufacturers and system suppliers to supply. ”Liu Gang said so.

The rise of Xinchuang industry

In addition to component collaboration, the maturity and technology evolution of industrial chain ecology are also the focus of attention in recent years. During the cite exhibition, the development process of information innovation industry (information technology application innovation industry) has attracted much attention.

Zhang Wei told the 21st century economic reporter that with the opening of the new pattern of double circulation, the market space of Xinchuang industry will be very huge, and all enterprises are looking for their own positions.

"At present, it starts with the application at the government level, and other enterprise level and industry level applications will follow up one after another." He pointed out that Tongfang is now focusing on eight major industry sectors, especially in finance, transportation, telecommunications, energy, education and other industries. Tongfang's desktop computers, laptops and servers will cover the needs of these industries. "Of course, at present, the process of information innovation industry has just begun. At this stage, we have blossomed in Telecom and other industries, and there are mature solutions such as cloud desktop and high-end workstation for enterprises."

In the newly explored education industry, the same party has completed the corresponding terminal adaptation, such as popularizing the intelligent blackboard to the teaching process in more relatively remote areas of the country, and combining the teaching resources of Tsinghua University on the back of the contractor, promoting the popularization of education informatization 2.0.

"The Xinchuang industry is a complete ecology, and we can't develop independently." Zhang Wei pointed out that behind the development of the information and innovation industry, it is necessary to build a complete ecology, so that the upstream and downstream, and the same industry can learn and grow from each other. "China's information and innovation industry is a relatively new field for employees in the information industry. No one's technology or application function is particularly advanced. Only by healthy competition and mutual cooperation can we promote the healthy development of the entire ecology." He continued.

In a forum speech at the above-mentioned exhibition, Zhang Wei also pointed out that scientific and technological innovation is the mainstream trend, which is also the "science and technology independence and self-improvement" proposed in the direction of the "14th five year plan". "Our technology is still in the stage of building a base, and many electronic information products we use are under the Western technology system. Compared with the state of foreign countries, China's own core technology has only accumulated for 20 or 30 years. Therefore, our biggest challenge at present is how to make use of the limited time to achieve "overtaking on corners". To solve this dilemma, we need to develop in a joint and integrated way, adhere to the joint tackling of key problems within the industry, and improve the ability of scientific and technological research and development. "

He also believes that the next three years will be the process of Xinchuang products from individual fields to comprehensive promotion. In this process, the basic hardware, basic software, application software, as well as the information requirements on this will all help Xinchuang to a new level of development.

However, this does not mean that the same party will only produce Xinchuang products, but will provide corresponding products and services according to the needs of different partners.

Zhang Wei told reporters: "in the next step, Tongfang will adhere to the two technical routes of" Xinchuang + x86 "to develop side by side. In terms of Xinchuang industry, it will further expand its investment according to the progress and development direction of the market."

According to the introduction, the technological innovation direction and application demand of hardware are very diverse. Tongfang will provide products to meet the market demand, change the market and product strategy, adhere to their own technology research and development, and make plan B / C plan preparation in advance based on the current environment.

Zhang Wei pointed out that the core of the joint development of the two technological routes is that the demand from the information and innovation industry may affect the creativity of consumer products, and the technological layout of the latter will reverse affect the development ideas of the information and innovation products. In essence, the two routes are symbiotic and win-win relationship, but there will be some differences or synergy in channel and other aspects.