[영상] Hyundai Motor Company’s semiconductor shortage, cooperating with Samsung Electronics?

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Han: Today’s date is March 4. Today, the Ministry of Industry released a material. The title is [미래차-반도체 수요-공급 기업이 함께 차량용반도체 협력 방안을 모색] In doing so, the “Future Semiconductor Solidarity and Cooperation Council” was launched as a sub-title. “This is to discover a model of cooperation between automotive semiconductor companies and promote support,” he announced. Deputy General Manager Lee Soo-hwan.

Lee: Yes.

Han: Indeed, Korean government officials are quick. In fact, from the beginning of this year, automotive semiconductors were very shortage (short supply). Didn’t we also deal with it as a video? Why did automotive semiconductors become shortage? Eventually miss predictions last year. Because of the corona, the car would not sell much, so the production forecast was significantly reduced. In short, semiconductor companies, foundries, etc.

Lee: You have to fill it with something else.

Han: Because I do industrial and fill it with consumer devices. However, in the second half of the year, the demand for cars as well as general TVs and home appliances exploded.

Lee: It exploded.

Han: From my point of view, anyway, the money I go on a trip and go out to buy and eat keeps accumulating in my pocket. Suddenly, automakers are struggling to find solutions for Shortage. Everyone is talking to Taiwan now. TSMC and UMC asked to make it well, and it seems that I pressed and apportioned it. Eventually, their companies also said, “Okay. Didn’t you even say, “We will allocate capacity to automotive semiconductors”?

Lee: What is interesting about this is that we are working closely with and negotiating with major countries and associations, including Taiwan. Nothing has been drawn up yet. But, one step ahead, I had already opened hands with the German government, the US government, or the Taiwanese government. This is why I think that just because our government is talking to the Taiwanese government or related companies, we just talk and can’t get a clear conclusion.

Han: But when you actually hear the story, when you look at the supply and demand of semiconductors in the consumer device group, DDI has been a shortage since last year. The driver IC for display has been going back and forth a bit from Shortage, that is, Shortage, but now Taiwan is producing semiconductors on the automobile side, and if you allocate some of its production capacity, DDI will be upset again now.

Lee: It must be upset.

Han: Because now, at the Samsung Austin factory, about 20,000 OLED DDIs that go out to Apple are making some 20,000 of them in Austin. There now.

Lee: Because of the cold wave.

Han: It is said that the factory loses more than 10 billion won a day. I haven’t been able to run the factory for a few days already. There may be an aftermath on the DDI side, and on the display side as well. So, listening to the Taiwanese side, it seems that some of the movements devoted to automobiles are showing. But now, the truth is, when I saw the titles of the materials and news from major media while looking at this material. As if Samsung Electronics is supplying semiconductors to Hyundai Motors, or to correct what can be read with such a nuance. If you carefully read the material and the press release of the Ministry of Industry, it is not like that. What I wrote here is “[완성차 기업] Most of the core automotive semiconductors depend on foreign countries. [반도체 기업] Automotive semiconductors (MCUs, etc.), which are currently in unstable supply and demand.” The last time in our video, we said that MCU is insufficient. “There is no domestic production process for vehicle semiconductors (MCU, etc.).” Now, neither Samsung Electronics nor DB Hitech.

Lee: No.

Han: In the end, the stories in this material now include short-term measures and mid- to long-term plans. I wrote down the short-term measures like this. “We are discussing closely with the international community.” Was it the Korea Automobile Industry Association (KAMA) last month? I made a report there. “The government should ask Taiwan to increase production as soon as possible” at the Korea Automobile Industry Association (KAMA). It was a little weird, but it wasn’t what the Semiconductor Association told me about. Because it is a demand company. So it’s a bit weird at the semiconductor association? There are many expectations, wishes, and hopes that Samsung hopes to surpass TSMC in the minds of Korean people, but in fact, it will take a very long time even if it is surpassed. In terms of market cap, TSMC already has a higher market cap than Samsung Electronics.

Lee: If you look at the entire industry in Taiwan, not Samsung Electronics. It is said that Taiwan’s GDP has also increased a lot.

Han: So, when we come back, we are discussing closely with the international community as a short-term measure anyway. It would be strange if the Korean government talked to Taiwan again. Isn’t it a renunciation state right now?

Lee: All the countries that have diplomatic relations with China have no choice but to sever ties with Taiwan.

Han: And from February 17th, we have been supporting rapid customs clearance for automotive semiconductor parts. And it is said that there is an urgent support for performance evaluation in the past. Today from Samsung Electronics, from DB HiTek, and from the fabless side, Telechips. Well, it’s the company you were dealing with. And the company that is seeing the deficit, called Nextchip, is a difficult company. I also said that I would do automotive semiconductors, so I split the company and do various things, but I don’t think it’s easy. On the Hyundai Motors side, Hyundai Mobis talked to someone from the Hyundai Motors side. It seems meaningful to sit down on top of each other and form a council.

Lee: But there seems to be a similar seat in 2009.

Han: There was a similar story in 2009. If you look at the title of the article on Yonhap News around July, [현대차-삼성, 자동차용 반도체 개발나서]. This is the news from 2009.

Lee: It seems like a debut has happened.

Han: At that time, we met like this, and at that time, President Kwon Oh-hyun and Hyundai Motor Company also came out and shook hands. Since next year, there has been a lot of news that Samsung Semiconductor will be installed in Hyundai Motor Company.

Lee: I remember that the government also provided some funding.

Han: I also went on a number of assignments. But none of them were installed.

Lee: After that, when Hyundai Autron was launched.

Han: After that, Hyundai Otron launched it in April 2012. At that time, when Hyundai launched Hyundai Otron, it said that it would design a chip by itself. In October 2012, an article came out from the Hankyoreh. [현대오트론 ‘통행세’로 돈방석]. Toll. In the past, if you traded directly with Hyundai Mobis or Hyundai Motor, whether it was Infineon or TI, Hyundai Otron was stuck in the middle. So now, it’s like LG Electronics PRI receives display equipment and exports it to China or gives it to LG Innotek or gives it a toll. Hyundai Otron also made a lot of money by doing that a lot. Eventually, the company is now gone. The semiconductor division went to Hyundai Mobis, and the rest of the divisions went to other affiliates and merged. However, anyway, what makes this talk a bit verbose today is that companies such as Telechips and Nextchip, which are now so-called in Korea, are making semiconductors for automobiles, but infotainment. Whether it’s an AP or ISP that goes into infotainment.

Lee: It goes into that side, which is also called a cluster.

Han: It’s that part. The so-called core semiconductor, automotive semiconductor ECU, enters the vehicle’s powertrain. Related to the drive, related to the engine. Or, if it’s an electric car, there are many things that go into BMS. It is safe to assume that there is no.

Lee: One of the things we can’t do is Chassis, then Body, then Safety.

Han: No, I said TPMS and car tire pressure sensors were in full swing before, but I couldn’t. So, as I said before, there aren’t too many stocks anyway, there’s not much money, and the entry barrier is very high, and once you enter, you have to take your inventory for a long time. It’s not easy for Korean companies to enter. In fact, if Hyundai Motor Company opened the door and actively developed a specification that satisfies our specific requirements, if a domestic company develops it, “I will write it” or if there is such a guarantee, the so-called in Korea Could the market blossom for automotive semiconductors related to driving? But in the meantime, you haven’t done it too much.

Lee: You mentioned the infotainment chip earlier. But these days, telematics chips are basically installed in a lot of cars, aren’t they? However, the telematics chips are not for example Samsung modem chips or such chips, but all foreign chips are received and supplied as modules.

Han: Qualcomm, Nvidia I use it in places like this. Anyway, there is a reason why Hyundai Motor Company does not use Samsung Electronics chips in Korea. In the late 90s.

Lee: Actually, it’s not easy for both companies to hold hands. Battery supply is also difficult.

Han: Still, didn’t you go to the factory? In the past, I went to the venue, too. Chairman Eui-sun Eui-sun went to Samsung SDI’s battery factory.

Lee: Go to the factory and shake hands. But now, the parts where the collaboration was done wasn’t the battery side. The whole solid story will come out in the future, but it’s still a distant story.

Han: So there are things like that, whether or not to use it because it can become a potential competitor. If you open the door a little. Now, in fact, many startups are making AI semiconductor NPUs. In fact, such a field is of course good. Because there is no process. Since we sat down in that direction, it was said that we created a council, so it would be nice if discussions could take place. Looking at the data released today, in fact, there were a lot of similar news in 2009, but nothing happened. 10 years later, when we comment again, it’s really depressing to say, “I did that in 2021, and there was nothing.”

Lee: First of all, I think Hyundai Motors needs to think about its profit model. Recently, Tesla replaced the MCU that was used in the old model S. Previously, it was NVIDIA Tegra. But, the software has been updated a lot, hasn’t it? It was a lot slower. However, since changing this to an Intel Atom processor, there were many consumers who felt very comfortable in autonomous driving, expanding the map, and running various applications. This kind of hardware module upgrade business is also a business that can be considered in the future.

Han: Anyway today, Kang Kyung-sung, head of the industrial policy department of the Ministry of Industry, said, “The current supply and demand uncertainty in automotive semiconductors is caused by the global semiconductor supply and demand mismatch, and it is difficult to fundamentally resolve them in a short period of time. And he said that he plans to announce specific measures soon after going through these talks that came out today, and through discussions with related ministries. In fact, I think that a good market could be created if a demand company opens its door a little.

Lee: If you look at countries like Japan and Germany, all of them have very well-equipped demand companies, so the underlying semiconductor companies can also grow rapidly.

Han: German Infineon, Japanese Renesas. I’ll do it here today. thank you.

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