Rebirth 99 to become a car giant.

Chapter 254 Chip Crisis

In 2004, although many people had realized the importance of chips, more people felt that chips were just like other things, as long as they could be purchased.

China has just joined the WTO a few years ago, and the concept of international division of labor and cooperation is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

In the eyes of many people, chips belong to the international division of labor and cooperation and do not belong to China.

Now Infineon has introduced a purchase limit on Nanshan. In Cao Yang's view, it is actually a good thing for the development of China's chip industry.

At least Cao Yang was aware of chip-related research earlier and couldn't wait any longer.

Even if large-scale research and development is not carried out now, some early technical reserves and preparations need to be carried out.

Otherwise it will be too late by then.

To this end, taking advantage of the chip supply crisis, Cao Yang established a semiconductor division at Nanshan Research Institute and transferred a group of researchers on ECU, TCU and other related parts to this division.

At the same time, through his relationship with Xiang Changle, he also started cooperative research in this area with Lingnan University of Technology and others.

Of course, as someone who has experienced it, Cao Yang knows very well that the threshold for chips is very high.

At present, Nanshan is not able to go all out to develop this thing.

"Mr. Cao, the situation is basically clear. This matter was caused by Bosch and Siemens."

"In the past six months, we have begun to compete with Bosch on many parts. During the Chinese New Year, Bosch people even used ECU development issues to hinder the verification of our generators and starters."

"After that, the conflict between the two sides continued to expand, making Bosch aware of our threat."

"As for Siemens, we had already formed a rift when it came to the machine tool CNC system. It's just that Siemens has a big business and the CNC system in the machine tool industry did not hurt their foundation, so no special measures were taken against us at that time."

"This time Bosch took the initiative to contact them, and naturally the old and new grudges were settled together."

"So they used the chip purchase restriction plan to convince Infineon to attack us."

"Nowadays, the price of the main control chips used in several of our parts has skyrocketed five times, and the price changes every day. It is very likely that it will double again in a few days. It is very crazy."

"Some other traders also saw the business opportunities and began to drive up the prices of these types of chips."

"Even some products that are clearly more advanced than our chips are now less than half ours."

Zeng Tingting and Su Mingting came to Cao Yang's office to report to him on the latest chip investigation.

In just a few days, it feels like the world has changed.

The chip that has never had any problems has now become Nanshan's weakness.

"Mr. Cao, our current chip reserves should be able to support us for three months."

"But if the situation is allowed to continue to develop, I am afraid that sooner or later we will not be able to buy chips, or we will not be able to afford them."

"If the price of a chip that originally costs 10 yuan reaches several hundred yuan, then there will be no point in buying it back."

"It is impossible for the OEM to accept our price increase, but if the price does not increase, we will be making parts for nothing."

Su Mingxing's mentality is a bit pessimistic.

He couldn't find a way to break the situation, and the only thing he could do was to hoard as many chips as possible.

To this end, he even arranged for personnel to go abroad to find traders in the Japanese and American markets to purchase a batch of spot chips from Infineon.

But as Infineon's management tightens, this approach will definitely soon become unworkable.

When there are no more chips, will Nanshan’s engines, gearboxes, and other parts with chips no longer need to be produced?

Nanshan's soaring wings are about to be broken?

"Can we find evidence that Bosch and Siemens persuaded Infineon to cut off our confession?"

"My colleagues in the legal department have a lot of free time during this period, so they can go to Germany to promote the antitrust investigation of Bosch and Siemens."

"At the same time, the institute will immediately start a chip replacement plan to verify the main control chips of NXP, STMicroelectronics, and Renesas to avoid having no chips available in the future."

Although Cao Yang felt a little aggrieved, as a short-term countermeasure, he could only stay like this for now.

He does not believe that Bosch has the ability to make all chip manufacturers cut off supply to Nanshan.

That's simply not realistic.

Even other manufacturers are happy to see Infineon cut off supply to Nanshan, giving them more opportunities.

"Mr. Cao, we do not have anti-monopoly laws in China. In Germany, it would be difficult for us to push the judicial authorities to conduct anti-monopoly investigations on Infineon or Siemens and Bosch."

"Besides, although their behavior is despicable, it cannot simply be related to antitrust, right?"

Zeng Tingting felt that Cao Yang's plan had many loopholes, so she quickly warned it.

"You are right. It is naturally impossible to succeed based on this information alone."

"But we have to make sure they are careful and don't do whatever they want."

"It also allows them to feel some pressure from public opinion."

Cao Yang is definitely not someone who doesn't fight back when beaten.

Although my ability to fight back is limited now, I still have to show my attitude.

"If that's the purpose, it shouldn't be a big problem."

"The best thing is to ask Infineon to lift this restriction and not get involved in the competition between us and Bosch and Siemens."

After Zeng Tingting finished speaking, she immediately went to make arrangements.

……

NetEase Auto Channel.

Lin Jiayan pushed open the glass door of Fang Dawen's office with a happy face.

"Editor-in-Chief, someone from Bosch just provided us with a very interesting news clue. I think we can promote it as the headline news in the recent period."

"Bosch? They actually proactively provide us with news clues?"

Fang Dawen looked at Lin Jiayan curiously.

As the editor-in-chief of the Automobile Channel, he naturally knows about the existence of an auto parts giant like Bosch.

However, according to his past understanding of parts giants such as Bosch and Denso, they are not very interested in the automotive channels of various portals.

Let alone advertising, I am not even willing to invest in some soft articles.

Now the other party was actually willing to proactively provide news clues, which surprised Fang Dawen.

"Yes, and this news clue is still related to Nanshan Group."

As soon as he heard the words "Nanshan Group", Fang Dawen immediately became energetic.

It is no secret that Autohome is an industry of Nanshan Group.

Now that this news has something to do with Nanshan Group, Fang Dawen is naturally very concerned about it.

"Could it be that Bosch has caught something about Nanshan?"

As a graduate of the Chinese Department of Teito University, Fang Dawen's brain is still very easy to use. He immediately thought of the relationship between Bosch and Nanshan, and thus speculated on the content of the news.

"If you understand it this way, there seems to be no problem." Lin Jiayan rolled her eyes and continued: "The international chip giant Infineon has issued a notice to all dealers, requiring them not to sell chips to Nanshan Group in the future."

"And the ECU and TCU used in Nanshan's engines and gearboxes are said to use Infineon chips."

"If there is not enough chips, their engine and gearbox supply will soon have problems."

"There will even be problems with the supply of more parts, which can directly plunge Nanshan into a business crisis."

Lin Jiayan is very aware of the grievances between her channel and Autohome, and can also understand Fang Dawen's attitude towards Nanshan.

Sure enough, after finishing this content, Fang Dawen's face was full of joy and said: "Is Infineon really going to cut off the supply of chips to Nanshan? By then, won't Nanshan's development suddenly come to a standstill?"

The more unlucky Nanshan is, the happier Fang Dawen is.

Originally, he was anxious because the traffic of the car channel was declining and the traffic of the car channels of several other portals was increasing, but now his mood immediately improved.

“It will definitely have a big impact on Nanshan.”

"But it depends on how great Infineon is!"

"I want to form a series of reports around this theme so that Nanshan will appear on the headlines of our automotive channel in the next week!"

When Lin Jiayan said this, Fang Dawen naturally had no objection.

"If you write these articles carefully, it is best to write them in a professional way, but at the same time take into account the need for easy-to-understand articles."

"We must make Nanshan Group depressed!"

Fang Dawen became more resentful when he thought about how Yu Yu had switched jobs to Autohome and how he had been criticized by people in the gaming department.

……

"Mr. Cao, people from Bosch have taken the initiative to contribute content to our website, which is full of content that maliciously slanders Nanshan Group."

When NetEase Auto Channel received some news clues from Bosch, Autohome naturally also received them.

Naturally, Yu Yu found Cao Yang immediately and reported to him.

Yu Yu, who has a strong sense of risk, has already sensed the conspiracy behind this matter.

"These articles are pretty well written. They are basically factual and not malicious."

Cao Yang quickly read the article handed over by Yu Yu and said something that surprised Yu Yu.

"Ah? Mr. Cao, has Infineon really cut off chip supply to our group? Why?"

Yu Yu obviously couldn't understand Infineon's approach at all.

If you don’t make any money, what do you want to do?

"This involves competition with some products from Bosch and Siemens, and Infineon is just an accomplice."

"You have already received the manuscript. I guess people from Bosch have also submitted it to other websites."

"Just send it out normally later."

News has to be reported anyway. In this case, there is no need for Autohome to avoid it completely.

Otherwise, people will think that Autohome's reports are selective and unfair.

This is very detrimental to the development of a website.

"This……"

"Then I really posted it?"

Yu Yu was very surprised by this instruction.

Shouldn't I arrange for someone to suppress these manuscripts?

"Send it!"

"The best thing is to ask Bosch to charge some soft article fee. I guess the other party may actually provide it."

Cao Yang made a joke and took it as a joke.

……

BYD's F6 has been selling very well during this period.

Although sales exceeded 12 units in December last year, they only exceeded 1 units again in January this year, and then fell back to the level of about 8000 units, but this is still a very good result.

At least everyone at BYD is very satisfied with the performance of the F6.

According to their vision, if they launch two more cars, BYD will become a large company with an annual output of 30 cars.

So when the automotive channels of various portals posted that Infineon was cutting off the supply of chips to Nanshan, which might cause problems in the supply of Nanshan's ECU, TCU, ESP and other parts, Zhong Qiang immediately became nervous.

"Minister Zeng, are those rumors on the Internet true?"

"If the ECU and TCU cannot be produced, will the engine and gearbox also be unable to come off the assembly line?"

Zhong Qiang called Zeng Tingting as soon as he saw the news.

Only after he understands the situation can he report it internally.

"Zhong Bu, I have seen the news you mentioned. There is a conspiracy behind this matter."

"But don't worry, we have launched several plans at the same time, which will certainly not affect the supply of parts."

Zhong Qiang was not the first to call Zeng Tingting to inquire, and he certainly would not be the last.

Zeng Tingting has now developed a complete vocabulary.

Of course, she also knew that just a few simple words would definitely not be able to dispel the customer's concerns.

So before Zhong Qiang continued to ask, she continued: "The chip we are using is not an advanced chip for Infineon. It can even be said to be a product from five years ago."

"Chips on auto parts pursue stability and do not have very high performance requirements."

"So these chips actually exist in large numbers on the market and are used in many places. Unless Infineon completely discontinues production of this chip, it will not be available in the market."

"In addition, our ECU, TCU and other parts are designed and developed by the company's own R&D team, which has complete verification capabilities to replace the chip."

"According to the current progress, we can complete a full set of SPEC verification of the replacement solution in up to three months to ensure that there is no degradation in performance compared to before."

When Zeng Tingting said this, Zhong Qiang breathed a sigh of relief.

At least the F6's engine and gearbox are supplied in a short period of time, so there won't be any problems.

What happens next depends on the development of the situation.

"Zengbu, in this case, if you purchase chips from the market, the price will definitely be much higher than before, right?"

Zhong Qiang's question was obviously not without purpose.

It has been reported on the Internet that the price of those chips has skyrocketed 10 times.

How could he, the head of the purchasing department, ignore this news?

Will Nanshan bear the increase in the price of these chips himself, or will he ask BYD to bear it?

"Yes, the price of chips has increased a lot, and it has basically eaten up all our profit margins. If it continues to rise, we will have no profit at all."

"But don't worry, the rise and fall of chip prices falls within the scope of Nanshan's responsibility for its own profits and losses. We will not ask BYD to raise prices."

Zeng Tingting's words are true and false.

Simply looking at ECU or TCU, once the price of chips increases, there is really no profit margin.

Even if there is, there is only a little hard work left.

But when it comes to the entire engine or gearbox, the situation is completely different.

Besides, they have now begun testing using alternative chip solutions, and the results will be available soon.

As soon as this news is released to the market, the price of the corresponding Infineon chip will immediately fall, or even fall directly to a lower price than the original price.

"Zeng Bu, BYD now only has one F6 model. Unlike other car companies that have several models, I still need your support in terms of parts supply."

Although he was no longer so worried, Zhong Qiang still mentioned the issue of priority guarantee to Zeng Tingting at this time.

Zeng Tingting was not surprised by this.

This is what purchasing does!

"Zhongbu, don't worry!"

"BYD and Nanshan are strategic partners, and we will definitely not let the F6 model have supply issues."

“As many cars as you can sell, we will definitely be able to supply the corresponding parts!”

Zeng Tingting patted her chest and made a promise.

However, as soon as she hung up the phone, she immediately went to Cao Yang to continue discussing the chip crisis.

"Mr. Cao, as a short-term solution, purchasing chips from the market in other ways can solve part of the problem."

"As a mid-term strategy, using chips from other chip manufacturers such as NXP and Renesas can also solve most of the problems."

"But I think it is possible to cooperate with domestic chip manufacturers so that our chips can be domestically produced?"

In the past few days, Zeng Tingting has been under great pressure.

The purchasing department heads or purchasing managers of various OEMs called her, concerned about whether chip supply issues would lead to parts supply issues.

Although Zeng Tingting made great efforts to explain, she also knew that these explanations could not completely solve the customers' concerns.

In the future, when many OEMs consider supplier selection for some parts, they will inevitably try to have several suppliers for one type of parts.

This can avoid supply issues to the greatest extent.

Even if a certain supplier is unable to supply goods, the entire company will not stop production.

"As a long-term solution, there is definitely no problem with the plan you mentioned."

"I have arranged for people to investigate the situation of the domestic chip industry, and I have also found headhunters to find ways to go to TSMC, Samsung and other companies to find ways to recruit some people."

"Let our Nanshan Research Institute Semiconductor Division start work as soon as possible."

"But these will take time and will not solve our problems in the short term."

Cao Yang knows the importance of chips better than anyone else.

The chip crisis that began to erupt in 2020 will have a huge impact on the automotive industry.

Some chips have even experienced extreme price increases from five yuan a piece to 2000 yuan a piece.

Even in 2023, the chip supply problem has not been completely resolved.

This is completely beyond everyone's understanding.

Even if it is to rebuild a chip factory, three years is enough, right?

Besides, by 2023, the demand for chips in various consumer electronics has dropped significantly. It stands to reason that some chip manufacturers should have surplus production capacity.

but……

Judging from the results, the price of automotive-grade chips used in cars has always been at a high level!

There is no intention of declining at all.

Cao Yang must be prepared for a rainy day.

However, this matter obviously cannot be rushed.

This problem can be initially solved within ten years and completely solved within 20 years.

Even if it is very good!

"Bosch's move is really cruel, much more powerful than other opponents' moves!"

"Obviously others have also come up with a joint strategy to deal with Nanshan, but compared with Bosch's strategy, the effect is much worse."

"Obviously there are reasons why we can firmly sit at the No. 1 position in the auto parts industry."

Zeng Tingting has fought against many parts giants, but so far, Bosch should be the most difficult to deal with.

People have directly targeted Nanshan's weakness, but the counterattack she can do is very limited.

At this time, we continue to go to various OEMs to sell new control parts, but there is basically no possibility of success.

"Don't worry, there won't be any big problems!"

"Infineon also has a lot of business in China. When Nanshan really can't sustain it, we won't have no solutions."

"Bosch can convince Infineon through some connections, and so can we."

"It's just not to that extent. I don't want to do it like this."

These days, Cao Yang is also worried about the chip crisis.

However, a phone call from Liu Tianwu yesterday made him realize that he was actually worrying too much.

With Nanshan Group's current influence in Yangcheng, Lingnan Province, and even in China, Cao Yang really doesn't need to worry about the suspension of production because he can't buy chips.

By then, there will be a lot of people who care more about this matter than Cao Yang.

When an enterprise develops to a certain level, many things are no longer the boss’s sole responsibility.

Not to mention that Nanshan has many internationally leading equipment, materials and component technologies in its hands, but simply looking at the scale of Nanshan, it is not an existence that can be allowed to stop production at will.

"Mr. Cao, let's put it this way..."

Zeng Tingting is also very smart.

She had always been stuck in a fixed mindset before, but now that she heard what Cao Yang said, she immediately reacted.

It’s not that Infineon can’t produce the chips Nanshan wants, they just don’t want to sell them to Nanshan.

This problem is actually not that serious at all!

At least in the short term, it doesn't seem that serious.

To solve the problem, in addition to the several solutions that have been thought of before, there are also shortcuts that can be taken.

It's just that Zeng Tingting is used to doing things according to business rules and doesn't want to take shortcuts.

"okay!"

"Don't think too much about this matter. You are the director of the sales department. You just need to find ways to maintain good customer relationships and win more orders for the company."

"The so-called chip crisis now, if we look at it more than ten years from now, maybe it will be just a trivial problem in the development process of Nanshan!"