The EU has initiated provisional countervailing duties on Chinese-made BEVs as of July 4, 2024. While new tariff percentages have been announced, they show minimal change from the rates published on June 12. The tariffs include 17.4% for BYD, 19.9% for Geely, and 37.6% for SAIC. Additionally, automakers identified as cooperating with the investigation but not sampled will face a 20.8% tariff—affecting a total of 13 companies—while other automakers not listed will be subject to a 37.6% tariff.
TrendForce reports that June saw a significant drop in lithium prices due to a focus on inventory reduction in the downstream battery sector. Weak demand for lithium salts and sluggish shipments of lithium carbonate—compounded by short-term oversupply—drove lithium carbonate prices to a new low for the year. Prices fell from over CNY 100,000 per ton last month to the range of CNY 90,000 per ton.
In 2016, TSMC developed and named its InFO FOWLP technology, and applied it to the A10 processor used in the iPhone 7. TrendForce points out that since then, OSAT providers have been striving to develop FOWLP and FOPLP technologies to offer more cost-effective packaging solutions.
TrendForce reveals that although the overall environment this year has been impacted by AI budget constraints—leading to slower-than-expected growth for general—recent procurement strength for related components such as BMCs and new CPUs indicates an improving trend for new server platforms among OEMs and CSPs. Additionally, surveys of ODM supply chains reveal that server shipments, after a seasonal dip in the first quarter, are expected to show sequential growth in the second and third quarters.
TrendForce reports that while the enterprise sector continues to invest in server infrastructure—especially with the rising adoption of AI driving demand for enterprise SSDs—the consumer electronics market remains lackluster. This, combined with NAND suppliers aggressively ramping up production in the second half of the year, is expected to push the NAND Flash sufficiency ratio up to 2.3% in the third quarter, curbing the blended price hike to a modest 5–10%.
