16 | Monday, March 8, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY 10 | Wednesday, March 6, 2019 CHINA DAILY

Global shortage sparks run on Short Torque Merged carmaker to Volvo all­in on electric be ‘disruptive’ force cars and online retail Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares last Chinese­owned Swedish auto­ week said the new car company maker Volvo said last week it vintage chipmaking machines formed by the merger of Fiat will produce only electric vehi­ Chrysler Automobiles and PSA cles by 2030 and sell them all Peugeot would be a “disruptive” exclusively online. Inspired and Massive demand for force in the industry. Both sides challenged by Elon Musk’s pio­ would provide technologies to neering Tesla brand, Volvo and semiconductors achieve the promised 5 billion others plan to ditch fossil fuel drives resellers in the euros ($6 billion) in cost savings vehicles in the next few years. It each year. The Italian­American comes as demand for zero­emis­ United States to hunt carmaker and the French mass­ sion cars is rising and govern­ for and buy old tools market automotive company ments are pressuring firms to completed their merger on Jan cut pollution. “The company 16. It created Stellantis, the intends to only sell fully electric San Francisco — Minnesota­ world’s fourth­largest carmaker, cars,” Volvo said in a statement. based Polar Semiconductor makes despite a pandemic that saw prof­ chips for automakers but is booked its plunge. MOTORING­AGENCIES beyond capacity. Expanding pro­ duction lines to help solve a chip shortage that is shutting down car factories around the world is not feasible — in part due to the scarci­ ty of older­style chipmaking machinery. Chip factories like Polar use these tools to make chips on 200­ millimeter silicon wafers, which were state­of­the­art two decades ago. Now, advanced chips are made using much larger wafers, but there is still much demand for sim­ pler, older chips. The demand has been super­ charged by a combination of the COVID­19­driven boom in comput­ er gear and unexpected strength in auto sales. General Motors on Wednesday extended production cuts at three North American plants and added a fourth to the list of factories hit. Ford solidifies its presence at the third China International Import Expo in 2020 in Shanghai. Chip Fiat Chrysler owner Stellantis shortages have forced the automaker to slash shifts for production of its F­150 pickup truck. warned the pain could linger far XIAO DA / CHINA DAILY into the year. Shortages forced Ford Motor to slash shifts for pro­ duction of its F­150 pickup truck, a one of the largest dealers of used cal marketing for a group at longtime profit driver. chipmaking gear. Applied Materials, the world’s big­ Automakers use a range of chips He said used equipment prices gest chip­equipment vendor. in cars. Some, such as those in info­ have gone up by as much as 20 per­ Demand is hot for David Haynes, a managing tainment systems, are made in the cent over the past six months. used equipment, director at Lam Research, said same cutting­edge chip factories Meanwhile, the number of refur­ demand for 200 mm tools was that make smartphone chips. But bished 200 mm tools fell to 1,000, but we don’t have once mostly from China as it chips in braking and engine sys­ down from between 7,000­8,000 a enough of them to worked to build up its domestic tems are made using older, proven decade ago. chipmaking industry. technologies that meet automak­ Ohio­based Rite Track, in nor­ cope with demand.” Now, he said, customers from ers’ durability and reliability mal times, would buy up old chip­ Bruce Kim, chief executive of around the world are looking to requirements. making equipment, upgrade it and South Korea’s SurplusGLOBAL, buy or upgrade older tools. The machines to make those old­ sell it to chip factories. one of the largest dealers of Still, investment in older tech­ er chips can take six to nine But Chief Executive Tim Hay­ used chipmaking gear nology lags relative to the spend­ months to find, said Surya Iyer, den said the recent squeeze has ing on more advanced production vice­president of operations and spurred the company to spend lines, or “nodes” as they are known quality at Polar. more time sending technicians duction line”, mostly to provide in the industry. “There’s no way I can expand out to upgrade tools that are samples to potential customers, “Most of the capital expendi­ capacity beyond just stretching my installed on factory floors in order said Chief Executive Tom Spark­ ture has been going into limits,” Iyer said. “A real capacity to squeeze more chips out of man. Even though Spin Memory’s advanced nodes,” said Tyson Tut­ increase would take nine to 12 them. tools use 20­year­old technology, tle, chief executive of Silicon Lab­ months, minimum.” “You just can’t go out on the Sparkman gets offers to buy them oratories, which designs Resellers of chipmaking gear say open market and buy a used 200 almost every day. automotive chips to be made on they cannot find used equipment, mm tool. They’re just not readily “We haven’t taken the plunge to older technology. leading some buyers to stalk old available,” Hayden said. “So people get rid of it yet, but some days it’s Chipmakers “have always relied factories in the United States, are getting a little bit more crea­ tempting,” he said. on the fact that the digital guys Japan and Europe, waiting for tive.” Toolmakers such as Applied move out of the older nodes and them to close in hopes of snapping Demand for old tools is so robust Materials and Lam Research, that frees up capacity for all the up the gear inside. that buyers are looking at every meanwhile, are enjoying a boom in support chips. The problem is, the “Demand is hot for used equip­ kind of factory. One example is business by refurbishing or recre­ digital guys aren’t moving out as ment, but we don’t have enough of Spin Memory in Fremont, Califor­ ating some of their greatest hits fast. The mainstream nodes are all them to cope with demand,” said nia, which is designing a new kind from the 1990s and earlier. just jammed”, Tuttle said. Bruce Kim, chief executive of of memory chip. “It’s really exploding,” said Mike South Korea’s SurplusGLOBAL, It maintains a small “pilot pro­ Rosa, head of strategic and techni­ REUTERS Auto executives submit proposals on tech and data security to two sessions

The annual gatherings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference are in progress. As such, the executives of automakers like Geely and SAIC Group, battery maker CATL and internet search giant Baidu have submitted their proposals to the political sessions. Here are some of them, keeping an eye on hot issues including industrial standards, auto chips, data security and carbon neutrality.

Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Wang Fengying, president of Zeng Qinghong, chairman of Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC Robin Li, CEO of Baidu and Zeng Yuqun, chairman of Holding Group and NPC deputy Great Wall Motors and NPC deputy GAC Group and NPC deputy Motor Corp and NPC deputy CPPCC member CATL and CPPCC member

Li proposed that the product Wang called for more efforts to Zeng proposed that China’s auto­ Chen said that data collected by Li proposed that the commercial Zeng proposed that electro­ safety and transportation manage­ promote the globalization of Chi­ mobile industry should give priority intelligent connected vehicles is applications of autonomous driv­ chemical energy storage should be ment standards of new energy vehi­ na’s new energy vehicle industry. to the development of chips. He said mainly from outside and inside the ing and the popularity of intelli­ incorporated into the national and cles should be revised, in order to She said that in recent years, that China should concentrate vehicle and remote data transmis­ gent transportation should be local energy development plans as adapt to long­distance railway thanks to policy support, techno­ human, financial and material sion and exchange, in a large quanti­ accelerated. This would allow peo­ a new form of national infrastruc­ transportation. logical innovation and large mar­ resources to strengthen the con­ ty and variety. However, in the ple to enjoy green and convenient ture. This is because it will play a Li said that with the promotion of ket scale, China has developed into struction of an industrial chain in process of data acquisition and appli­ mobility and help the country crucial role in helping reaching NEV sales in Europe and other the world’s largest NEV market. key auto components and parts. cation, relevant responsibilities and achieve its goal of reaching a car­ peak carbon targets and carbon overseas markets, Chinese NEV Under that context, the country has Zeng suggested that the industry specifications are to be improved. bon dioxide emissions peak before neutrality. products are expected to have more embraced the dual­circulation should work on both open coopera­ Chen proposed that a data security 2030. Zeng said that the large­scale development opportunities over­ development pattern and China’s tion and independent innovation system of intelligent connected vehi­ Li suggested that China commercial application of electro­ seas, which will bring with them automobile industry has ushered in to solve short­ and long­term chip cles should be constructed based on strengthen policy innovation and chemical energy storage should increased demand for cross­border a new development period of glo­ shortages. the actual situation of the industry. open up legalization paths for the rely on the improvement of energy logistics. balization. Statistics showed that in 2020, This is in order to promote the large­scale commercial use of storage policy and the market envi­ Li suggested, based on the prod­ Wang proposed that China the global auto chip market was research and formulation of laws and autonomous driving. A large­ ronment. uct characteristics of NEVs, the should support automakers that worth about 300 billion yuan regulations that relate to data securi­ scale commercial promotion He suggested developing electro­ safety and transportation stan­ are capable of independent innova­ ($46.36 billion). China accounted ty and personal privacy protection. mechanism for autonomous driv­ chemical energy storage in China dards should be amended and spe­ tion to go global, and establish a for less than 2.5 percent of that Chen also suggested that intelli­ ing should be established with from the aspect of strengthening cial freight trains for NEV defense mechanism to protect key with an independent auto chip gent connected vehicle companies the participation of governments top­level design. This would for­ transportation should be launched NEV technologies in the process of industry valued at around 7 billion are obliged to inform their users of at all levels, industry and acade­ mulate and improve the energy in due course. globalization. yuan. possible privacy risks. mia. storage standard system.