In August 2021, Xu Daquan, then Vice President of Bosch China, posted on WeChat Moments that he would jump off a building.

The cause of the incident was that ST (STMicroelectronics, later confirmed)'s factory in Muar, Malaysia, would temporarily close its production line due to the impact of the new coronavirus epidemic. This shutdown has a great impact on Bosch ESP/IPB, VCU, TCU and other related chips. It is expected that the supply of these chips will be cut off in August.

Behind Xu Daquan are a group of car company purchasers and CEOs who have been "chasing cores" at the Bosch headquarters in Shanghai for a long time to ensure supply.

At the same time, in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen, more than 1,000 kilometers away from Shanghai, IC purchaser Zhang Ling was also helping customers find an automotive chip named L9369. In less than a month, he watched the chip go all the way. Prices have increased from 200 yuan to 1,000 yuan, 3,000 yuan, and 4,000 yuan, with some quotations even reaching 6,000 yuan. Some customers even approached Zhang Ling and said: "Regardless of the cost, just get it when it's available." The original price of this chip was only 13 yuan, RMB.

The gears of fate began to converge at this time, and this chip was produced in the ST factory in Malaysia.

L9369 is the core chip of the automotive ESP system, and Bosch occupies 70% of the domestic ESP market. Faced with cars waiting to roll off the production line and unsolvable supply problems, car buyers could only bite the bullet and find a way to buy it even if it increased 300 times. Later, this high-priced chip was out of the circle due to various news reports. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to car core defects.

Before the wave of core shortages, OEMs and Huaqiangbei were completely unrelated entities. OEMs did not purchase chips directly but purchased them through Tier1 companies like Bosch; Huaqiangbei, as a global The largest electronic components market controls nearly 50% of the chip spot in the domestic open market. The customers it serves are mainly foreign large trade companies and small and medium-sized end customers scattered in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. There are only a very small number of automotive customers. A group of people can do it, but it is basically impossible for ordinary people to squeeze in and have a cup of soup.

The historic "core shortage" more than two years ago broke this situation. In addition to waiting for Tier1 and original manufacturers to distribute chips, car buyers began to go to Shenzhen Huaqiangbei, Beijing, and overseas to collect chips. The increase was dozens to hundreds of times. Stories of car chips and the addition of dozens of Maybachs began to flow out of the stalls and tight office buildings in Huaqiangbei.

Since the second half of last year, demand has been weak, chip prices have plummeted and overstocked inventories have become the main tone of the market. The roller coaster market has hit the bottom, with destocking, salary cuts and layoffs, downsizing of offices, and reselling of luxury cars... the chip industry has entered a long winter.

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