According to the Taiwan, China Regional Economic Daily of China, it is reported from the industry that TSMC, considering that the supply and demand of automotive semiconductors are no longer seriously strained, and that most automotive chip customers can transfer to new factories in Japan, the United States and other places for consumption, has delayed the start of new factories in Europe to 2025, about two years later than originally expected.

TSMC disclosed at its legal conference in January this year that it was in contact with customers and peers and would evaluate the possibility of establishing a special process wafer factory focused on automotive technology in Europe based on customer needs and government support from various countries. Regarding the reported delay in the pace of new factories in Europe, TSMC stated that it maintained its previous insights at the legal conference and currently has no updated response.

Unlike the news of the postponement of TSMC's factory construction, major automotive chip manufacturers such as Texas Instruments, Infineon, Microchip, Wolfspeed, and Ansemy have recently released reports of production expansion. The industry believes that the focus of this expansion of production by these large factories is not only on automotive chips, but also on imitation chips. It is reported that the above-mentioned large factories with expanded production are almost the top ten imitation chip giants.

Judging from the recent market situation, automotive chips have gradually returned to a balanced state of supply and demand this year after experiencing a two-year shortage. In terms of price, the price of chips such as driver ICs, PMICs, and local control ICs has dropped significantly, and the delivery time has also been shortened from time to time. However, the supply of power semiconductors and some high-end automotive MCUs still exceeds demand.

Some industry insiders believe that if TSMC delays setting up a factory in Europe, it also means that TSMC executives are seeing a loosening of demand in the automotive chip market, and there is no longer a significant shortage as before, so they are stepping on the brakes. Large factories such as Texas Instruments, Infineon, Microchip, Wolfspeed, and Ansemy have expanded production, with production capacity highly concentrated in power devices, especially with a strong growth momentum of SiC.

TrendForce Chibang Consulting estimates that the composite annual growth rates of the SiC and GaN power component markets will reach 35% and 61% respectively from 2022 to 2026. As the demand for rapid energy replenishment and superior power performance for electric vehicles becomes increasingly urgent, it is estimated that more vehicle companies will introduce SiC technology into the main inverter early in 2023, with high reliability, high performance, and low cost SiC MOSFETs as the key points in the competition.

Another major focus for manufacturers such as Texas Instruments, Infineon, Microchip, Wolfspeed, and Ansemy to expand production is to imitate chips.

As for the imitation chip industry with weak periodicity and long product life cycle, its market performance is also relatively stable during the current downward period of the semiconductor industry cycle. According to the 2022 financial reports of major imitation chip manufacturers such as Texas Instruments, ADI, Infineon, and Ansemy, the market conditions of these manufacturers are relatively stable.

From the perspective of future development, benefiting from the development of 5G communication, the growth of 5G mobile phone shipments, and the establishment and improvement of basic equipment, the development of communication will further promote the development of analog ICs. According to TrendForce Jibang Consulting, the 5G market is expected to reach 14.5 billion US dollars in 2023, and it is expected to rise to 37 billion US dollars by 2026, with an annual composite growth rate of 11.0%. During this period, it is mainly driven by applications related to the metauniverse, further stimulating the demand for 5G networks.

From the above, it can be seen that the semiconductor industry has a significant periodicity, and automotive power devices and analog ICs may be the hot spots in the next stage.