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PCs and laptops least
affected by parts shortages
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Driven by forces
such as the pandemic, geopolitics, and
the digital transformation of every-
day life, there has been a shortage of
global foundry production capacity for
nearly two years and shortages have
been especially severe for mature
1Xnm~180nm nodes, according to
TrendForce’s investigations.
Although all foundries are furiously in-
creasing capital expenditures to expand
capacity, unrealized future expansion does
not ease existing supply issues.
In addition, the uneven distribution of sup-
ply chain resources that has exacerbated
the shortage of parts and components has
yet to be definitively alleviated.
PCs largely unaffected
Circumstances as a whole will continue
affecting shipments of related whole de-
vices. Only the PC category is expected to
emerge largely unscathed in 1Q22.
Moving into 1Q22, TrendForce says, due to
the limited increase in production capacity,
the market's supply situation is expected
to be approximately the same as in 4Q21.
Off-season cycle
Some end products, however, have en-
tered their traditional off-season cycle and
the slowdown in demand momentum is
expected to alleviate the immediate pres-
sure on OEMs and ODMs regarding supply
chain stocking.
whole servers, the FPGA delivery cycle is
currently at over 50 weeks at most, while
the delivery cycle of Lan chips has im-
proved significantly, from the original
FEBRUARY 2022
50+ weeks to approximately 40 weeks.
Purchase order activity
However, escalating purchase order ac-
tivity caused by the uncertainty of the
pandemic combined with an accumulated
backlog of demand (Back order/backlog)
have pushed the SMT capacity of ODMs to
full load in general.
These phenomena have not only acceler-
ated the consumption of ICs such as FPGA
and PMIC, but the demand for additional
purchase orders of FPGA, PMIC and MOS-
FET is still compelling.
The overall market remains tight and the
production of server motherboards in the
future may face hidden issues. TrendForce
has ascertained a more crucial matter.
Seasonal server decline
Taking the L6 server as an example, its
production scale in 1Q22 will be roughly
the same as the previous quarter. How-
ever, whole server shipments will show a
seasonal decline with a decrease of ap-
proximately 8% QoQ.
For phones, material shortages have grad-
ually eased from the second half of 2021
partly due to the discretionary adjustment
of mobile phone specifications.
Mobile phone brands can adjust their spe-
cifica-tions and configurations based on
available materials.Currently, the supply of
four components remains relatively tight.
Among them, 4G SoC (30-40 weeks) and
OLED DDIC/Touch IC (20-22 weeks) have
a significant impact on the market.
The former will affect brands that focus
on selling 4G mobile phones. The latter is
affected by oligopolistic market structure
and the adjustment of foundry capacity.
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