By hmimcu 
The end of the year is approaching, and the price increase in the semiconductor industry has come too suddenly. Previously, OFweek Electronic Engineering Network reported the news that Renesas, NXP, ST and other semiconductor companies were out of stock and raised prices. Many industry insiders said, “I don’t know who will be the next one to raise prices.”
Recently, Goodix Technology, a major domestic touch IC manufacturer, issued a product price increase notice on December 28, announcing that starting from 0:00 on January 1, 2021, the US dollar prices of all GT9 series products will be uniformly raised on the basis of the current prices. 30%.
Goodix Technology said that although upstream suppliers such as fab-level packaging and testing have increased prices significantly since October, in order to share the cost pressure for customers, Goodix has never raised product prices. This price increase is the reason, and it is also difficult to withstand the pressure of a sharp increase in production costs caused by upstream price increases. In order to stabilize and sustain product supply, Goodix has decided to make the following adjustments to the price of GT9 series products:
1. The US dollar price of all products is uniformly increased by 30% on the basis of the current price.
2. The above adjustment plan will be implemented at 0:00 on January 1, 2021, that is, from 0:00 on January 1, 2021, the new price adjustment plan will be applied to orders shipped by our system.
3. From 0:00 on January 1, 2021, all orders received but not delivered before that will be resent by the agent for application. After the order of the above adjustment plan, our system will make corresponding price changes.
Due to the sudden incident, the news of Goodix’s price increase quickly spread throughout the semiconductor circle. Many rumors said that “Goodix will raise the prices of all products by 30% on January 1, 2021”, which also attracted Goodix’s attention. Urgently issued a clarification announcement, saying that according to the supply situation, the price adjustment is only made for the sales price of some of our touch products GT9 series. Our company has not made price adjustments for related products of other product lines; nor has it issued price increase notice letters to agents and customers related to other product lines.
According to OFweek Electronic Engineering Network, Goodix Technology is engaged in the research and development of intelligent human-computer interaction technology. At present, the company’s main products are capacitive touch chips and fingerprint recognition chips, in addition to landline phone chip products.
It is understood that Goodix Technology has been engaged in the research and development of intelligent human-computer interaction technology. In 2006, on the basis of the previous experience in the research and development of landline phone chips, the company developed a capacitive touch key chip; in 2007, it began the research and development of a capacitive screen touch chip, and developed an engineering sample in 2009. In 2010, it realized small batch production and Sale. With the rapid development of smart terminal markets such as smartphones and tablet computers since 2011, the company’s sales of capacitive screen touch chips have increased rapidly, while the proportion of fixed phone chip sales has declined. In 2014, the company developed a fingerprint identification chip product and successfully realized sales, further enriching the product line.
Today, the capacitive touch chips of Goodix Technology are mainly capacitive touch chips, which are widely used in the control of smart terminal touch screens such as smartphones, tablets, and navigators. In addition, there are a small number of capacitive touch button chips used in MP3, MP4, home appliances and other terminal product button control.
According to the “Goodix IPO Prospectus”, the GT9 series is the third-generation capacitive touch chip launched by Goodix at the end of 2012. This series of products adopts a 0.11um process and has more than 120 It has a signal-to-noise ratio of more than 2 times, has a full-screen drive scanning mode, and can support active capacitive pens, etc. It is mainly used in the mobile phone, tablet and ultrabook markets.
Regarding the price increase of the GT9 series, Goodix Technology stated in the notice that the reason is that it is difficult to withstand the pressure of a sharp increase in production costs caused by upstream price increases. For the stability and sustainability of product supply, it decided to make a decision on the price of GT9 series products 30% upward adjustment.
As we all know, the rise in semiconductor prices is not an isolated phenomenon, but a common problem faced by the entire industry. Since October, upstream suppliers such as fab-level packaging and testing have raised prices sharply, which has implicated midstream and downstream chip suppliers in linkage price increases. Goodix Technology stated that in order to share the cost pressure for customers, the company has never raised product prices before.
According to the third quarter report of Goodix Technology in 2020, the company’s operating income during the reporting period was 5.128 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.62%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 1.100 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.575 billion yuan. %.
According to the announcement, the outbreak and spread of the new crown epidemic in the first three quarters of 2020 has caused many countries to be affected to varying degrees at different times. Affected by factors such as the new crown epidemic and changes in the international situation, the company’s revenue growth has slowed down. The continuous investment in research and development of new products led to a continuous increase in research and development expenses, resulting in a year-on-year decrease of 35.75% in net profit.
For future performance expectations, Goodix Technology said that the impact of the new crown epidemic and the international economic situation in the fourth quarter still has great uncertainty on the company’s performance. It is predicted that the cumulative net profit at the end of 2020 will decline to a certain extent compared with the same period last year. .
The touch chip market is booming, and the price increase may be related to wafer production capacity
In recent years, with the improvement of the controllability of electronic equipment and the development of electronic technology, the application of touch screen technology in electronic equipment such as mobile phones, tablet computers, PMPs, and navigators has developed by leaps and bounds. In addition, touch screen technology is used in education, finance, Applications in industries such as industrial control are also developing rapidly.
Driven by the continuous release of demand in the global capacitive touch screen market, the capacitive touch chip market is rapidly heating up, and is widely used in smart phones, tablet PCs, MP3, MP4, PMP and navigators and other fields, of which smart phones and tablet PCs occupy main part. Especially in 2013, the launch of the fingerprint recognition function of the iPhone 5S triggered changes in the mobile phone market. Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and other mainstream smartphone manufacturers have gradually launched smartphones that support the fingerprint recognition function.
It is reported that this round of touch chip price increase is not only due to the surge in market demand for mobile phones, tablets and ultrabooks, resulting in insufficient supply, but more reasons may be related to the previous shortage of wafer production capacity. Pure-play foundries such as TSMC, Samsung, UMC, World Advanced, and SMIC have maintained high utilization rates, and China Resources Micro, Silan Micro, and other 8-inch and below-8-inch production capacities are also at full capacity.