This year’s automotive semiconductor sales 16%↑… Samsung Electronics,’Solsol’ with possibility of expansion and acquisition

It has been observed that this year’s memory and automotive semiconductor sales will grow by more than 16-18% from last year. The industry’s attention is focused on whether Samsung Electronics will expand capacity in a situation where there is a shortage of semiconductor supply for vehicles worldwide.

According to the industry on the 7th, global market research company IC Insights predicted that the automotive semiconductor market will grow 16% this year. This is higher than the 12% growth rate of the overall semiconductor market expected by IC Insights.

This is because prices are expected to rise due to the recent shortage of semiconductor supply for vehicles and the expansion of the autonomous and electric vehicle markets. Global automotive semiconductor companies turned their production to high-margin consumer (B2C) products, such as smartphones, PCs, TVs, and home appliances, instead of automotive semiconductors as automobile sales fell sharply in the first half of last year due to Corona 19.

However, as demand gradually recovered, automotive semiconductors became scarce, and GM, the largest automobile company in the United States, has stopped operating three local plants. It is reported that Germany’s Volkswagen and Audi, and Japan’s Toyota and Honda have also started reducing production of some models.

For this reason, the industry is raising the possibility of expanding Samsung Electronics’ automotive semiconductor line. In addition, considering the marketability in the future, it is expected to take over the global automotive semiconductor company itself.

In addition to vehicle semiconductors, memory semiconductors including DRAM are expected to grow. IC Insights predicts that DRAM sales will grow 18% and NAND flash sales will grow 17%, making it the first and second largest growth rate among the three products defined by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics Organization.

DRAM has turned to a growth trend last year as the demand for IT products surged due to telecommuting due to Corona 19 and the expansion of remote classes. The current DRAM spot transaction price has risen more than 20% compared to the fixed transaction price in December.

The growth of NAND flash is expected to continue due to the expansion of servers by cloud companies and the conversion of 5th generation (G) smartphones.

Kim Dong-won, a researcher at KB Securities, said, “The shortage of automotive semiconductors will last for about six months.”