In Shanghai, where the scale of integrated circuit industry accounts for a quarter of the country, the production lines of leading enterprises have not stopped since the outbreak of this round of epidemic "Chip manufacturing enterprises have maintained more than 90% of production capacity, SMIC, Huahong group and Jita semiconductor have maintained full production, and driven a number of supporting enterprises in the industrial chain such as equipment, materials and sealing and testing to speed up the resumption of work." At the recent press conference on epidemic prevention and control in Shanghai, Wu Jincheng, director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of economy and information technology, introduced when answering questions from China business.
As one of the major suppliers of new energy vehicle chips, Shanghai Jita semiconductor port plant has entered a closed management production mode since March 15. Zhou Hua, acting general manager of the company, told China first finance and economics that under the condition that nearly 1000 people are stationed in the plant for production, living, epidemic prevention and other materials are effectively guaranteed, "the production has maintained the operation rate of 100%. Coupled with the capacity of Xuhui plant, the operation rate of the whole company is more than 90%.
Manufacturing enterprises keep "core"
Led by the strong demand of the semiconductor market, the global semiconductor market will grow rapidly in 2021. China remains the largest semiconductor market, with total sales of US $192.5 billion in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 27.1%.
In 2021, China's import and export of integrated circuit products also maintained a high growth rate. According to customs statistics, last year, China imported 635.48 billion pieces of integrated circuits, an increase of 16.9% year-on-year, and the import amount was 432.55 billion US dollars, an increase of 23.6% year-on-year; China exported 310.7 billion pieces of integrated circuits, a year-on-year increase of 19.6%, and the export amount was US $153.79 billion, a year-on-year increase of 32%.
As an important base of the whole integrated circuit industry chain in China, Shanghai is the import port of 70% of the raw materials of integrated circuit chemicals in China. Last year, the scale of Shanghai's integrated circuit industry reached 250 billion yuan, an increase of 20%.
At present, the market demand for chips is still huge, and the upstream production capacity is still tight. Moreover, due to the particularity of the industry, the integrated circuit manufacturing industry should ensure uninterrupted continuous production.
Shanghai Jita semiconductor is one of the main suppliers of traditional automobile enterprises and new energy automobile chips. Its normal production and operation will alleviate the dilemma of "lack of core" of domestic intelligent networked vehicles. Zhou Hua said that when the current round of epidemic in Shanghai just happened, many logistics were cut off in the silent state. As the first batch of integrated circuit industry guarantee and supply companies, they soon obtained the logistics pass, so as to solve the transportation problem of the industrial chain in time.
During the period of static management in Shanghai, the Management Committee of Lingang New Area set up a special working class to basically provide "door-to-door" antigen detection or nucleic acid sampling services every day; At the same time, the special award and subsidy funds for port strategic emerging industries, high-tech industries and scientific and technological innovation approved by Jita will also be paid in advance in the form of simple procedures and post vacancy compensation in accordance with the policy of "fighting the epidemic and helping enterprises to rescue" issued by the new film area, and 50% of the nucleic acid testing expenses incurred will be subsidized for three months. Zhou Hua said that in addition to the company's own plan, the epidemic prevention measures are very strict, and the operating rate of the port area has always been 100%.
Similarly, in Huahong group, a chip manufacturing company, 6000 employees have entered the company for closed operation for more than 50 days to ensure the continuous supply of chips without shutdown. The company said that although there are many automatic operations in the plant, people are still needed to monitor the work. At present, the global chip supply chain is very tight. As the most important link, continuous production must be guaranteed in order to ensure that all kinds of downstream products have chips to use.
How to ensure supply upstream and downstream
The integrated circuit industry chain is long. In addition to manufacturing links, it also involves supporting enterprises in the industrial chain such as equipment, materials and sealing and testing. The lack of a link will affect the stability of the industrial chain.
As the main raw material of chips, the supply of silicon wafers affects the whole integrated circuit industry chain. The relevant person in charge of Xinsheng semiconductor, located in Lingang New Area, told first finance and economics that since the evening of March 27, more than 400 employees from key positions such as R & D and production have entered the closed-loop production in the plant area. Together with their colleagues who were originally in the company, a total of 600 people have closed-loop production.
Xinsheng is mainly to provide key raw materials such as 12 inch silicon wafers for downstream chip manufacturing enterprises. The above person in charge told reporters that if according to the state before the epidemic, there should be more than 1000 employees in the factory to ensure production. Now there is a relative shortage of 600 people, but it can ensure the normal operation of the company.
"Our production equipment and production line operate 24 hours a day, and our employees work on two shifts. If the equipment is stopped and continues to work, it may cause damage to the equipment or require the commissioning of process parameters. In addition, in the case of global chip shortage, once the supply is cut off, it will affect the whole downstream supply chain." The official said.
According to the data, following the record breaking in March, the output and shipment of 300mm silicon wafers increased by about 7% month on month in April.
Although the reserves are relatively sufficient, Xinsheng said when talking about the next production arrangement that since some raw materials still rely on foreign imports, if the epidemic continues for another month or two, both shipping and air transportation may be affected, resulting in difficulties in the supply of upstream raw materials. In this regard, the company has put forward corresponding demands to the customs, hoping to give certain priority consideration in the process of customs clearance.
Whether it is transportation of raw materials, parts or production equipment, the integrated circuit industry is inseparable from supply chain enterprises. Hongming supply chain company, headquartered in Zhangjiang, Pudong, has been providing production material guarantee for leading integrated circuit enterprises. As of the 16th, in terms of key integrated circuit parts, the company has delivered more than 1500 tickets and more than 2500 goods for downstream enterprises imported from Pudong Airport, and delivered more than 2600 tickets and 3700 goods from Shanghai distribution center to more than 100 domestic key integrated circuit enterprises in China.
Shen Yi, managing director of Hongming supply chain, told the first financial reporter that the IC industry involves a lot of import and export business, and the national general warehouse of key materials and spare parts is in Shanghai. Since the outbreak of this round of epidemic, led by Shanghai IC Industry Association, they have made plans in advance for IC supply chain guarantee under the epidemic, and connected with Shanghai cross-border trade big data platform at the specific operation level, Build an "industrial cross-border highway". At present, "the company has restored 70% of its production capacity".
"We have also experienced the rescue and support of Wuhan epidemic. In recent years, we have set up 20 spare parts warehouses in 12 integrated circuit industry agglomeration cities across the country to support more than 20 12 inch wafer semiconductor factories across the country." According to Shen Yi, of the 20 spare parts warehouses, one warehouse is difficult, and the rest will be filled immediately.
In the view of experts, with the improvement of the epidemic situation in Shanghai, we should also pay attention to the improvement of IC production capacity on the premise of ensuring epidemic prevention and control.
Li Ke, vice president of CCID Consulting, told reporters that in terms of output value, Shanghai ranks second in the domestic integrated circuit industry and Jiangsu ranks first. The epidemic has had a certain impact on the integrated circuit enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta, and then had an adverse impact on the domestic integrated circuit supply. "At present, in addition to doing a good job in epidemic prevention and control, we should also pay attention to the production capacity after the epidemic. Chip enterprises should vigorously tap the potential to open up full production capacity and strive to make up for some losses caused by downtime."