According to the latest investigations by DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, demand for smartphones and servers go below expected levels in 2019 as the US-China trade dispute heats up. Adding the CPU shortage, which continues to haunt notebook shipments, we may see the shipments of eMMC/UFSs, SSDs etc. fail to meet expectations for peak season 3Q, and cause contract prices to fall uncontrollably.
According to TrendForce’s latest statistics, the weakened demand in 1Q persisted well into 2Q as a result of political and economic instability. Suppliers' revenues generally exhibited a dropping trend YoY, and 2Q total revenue for foundries worldwide is expected to drop by about 8% compared to the same period 2018, arriving at US$15.4 billion. The top three in market shares are TSMC, Samsung and GlobalFoundries.
According to TrendForce , electric cars have already become the main motivator for growth of the future car industry, and are expected to exceed 8 million units in 2021, twice the amount of shipments for 2018. Apart from batteries and engines, IGBT power components are ranked as the most important among key electric car components, being used in numbers 5 to 10 times that of traditional internal combustion engines. These modules may therefore bring about continual growth of total IGBT market revenue, which is projected to go beyond the US$5.2 billion mark.
DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, points out that, as ripples from the US ban continue to spread, Huawei's shipments of smartphone and server products are feared to face heavy obstacles for the next two to three quarters , impacting peak-season-demand for DRAM products 2H and the time of price precipitation. TrendForce officially adjusts its outlook for 3Q DRAM prices from its original prediction of a 10% decline to a widened 10-15%.
According to TrendForce 's latest report, the release of Bluetooth 5.0, which solved the problems of transmission and power consumption inherent in TWSs, along with the release of Apple's AirPods, gave rise to a speedily growing market. One by one, Samsung, Sony, Huawei, Xiaomi and other smartphone brands are also releasing TWS headsets in 2019, projected to bring TWS earbud shipments up to 78 million sets, registering a YoY growth of 52.9%.