According to TrendForce research, as manufacturers actively shifted production capacity to 128 layer products, the market turned to oversupply, resulting in a drop in contract prices in 1Q22, among which the decline in consumer-grade products was more pronounced. Although enterprise SSD purchase order volume has grown, demand for smart phone bits has weakened due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, the traditional off-season, and rising inflation. Client inventories have increased significantly, so it remains challenging for overall bit shipment volume to offset potential decline. In 1Q22, NAND Flash bit shipments and average selling prices fell by 0.5% and 2.3%, respectively, resulting in a 3.0% quarterly decrease in overall industry revenue to US$17.92 billion.
According to TrendForce research, smartphone camera module shipments will increase to 5.02 billion units in 2022, an annual growth rate of 5%. Since the price-performance ratio of whole devices is the primary basis for consumer purchases, the cost of high-standard solutions such as the five-camera design and main cameras sporting hundreds of millions of pixels will inevitably be passed on to the manufacturer with little improvement in sales performance. Therefore, the three-camera module remains the mainstream design this year and is forecast to account for more than 40% of total shipments. Only some smartphone models will adopt a four-camera design to differentiate their specifications, while the number of products with dual-cameras or less will fall, with entry-level models being the primary candidates.
According to TrendForce research, due to China's lockdowns and inventory adjustments by notebook brands, April notebook panel shipments totaled 17.5 million units, down 21.5% YoY, and a new low for shipments since April 2020 and the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, shipments of notebook panels in 2Q22 is estimated at 55.1 million units, down 21.2% QoQ and 19% YoY.
According to TrendForce investigations, total DRAM revenue in 1Q22 decreased by 4.0% QoQ, reaching US$24.03 billion. The primary reason for this drop stems from market inflation, weakening demand, and the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war at the end of February affecting the performance of terminal consumption. At the same time, client-end inventory levels continue to rise, so their primary goal has become digesting inventory. Due to sluggish overall sales momentum, the prices of various DRAM products fell, resulting in overall DRAM revenue in 1Q22 succumbing to decline.
According to TrendForce data, total sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs including battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles) in 1Q22 was 2.004 million units, an annual growth rate of 80%. Battery electric vehicles (BEV) demonstrated the strongest growth with sales reaching 1.508 million units. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) sold 493,000 units. Growth in NEV sales did not come easy, as global auto market sales (regardless of powertrain type) fell by 7% YoY in 1Q22 due to factors such as the chip shortage, Russian-Ukrainian war, and China's pandemic lockdown and prevention measures.
