When will the chaos of fake and refurbished goods stop? IC chip detection is urgent

Date：2021-08-09 13:28:00 Views：1329

Before the global chip shortage, the problem of "fake chips" existed all the time, but people didn't pay too much attention. In fact, this is not the first time that a large number of counterfeit products have been triggered by the interruption of the chip supply chain. Recently, some media reported that there are problems such as fake chips and refurbished chips in China's largest electronic market. The reason is that there is a strong demand for chips in China. Some unscrupulous businesses use this speculation to harm manufacturers and consumers, which highlights the urgent demand for chips in the domestic market.

In fact, an epidemic last year led to a great blow to some semiconductor enterprises, such as workers' strikes. Then, the prices of some raw materials began to rise to varying degrees. Especially at the beginning of this year, the prices of most raw materials such as many metals and plastics have risen, ranging from resistance and capacitance to consumer electronics such as televisions and refrigerators. As we all know, Huawei, China's largest mobile phone company, is facing difficulties in chip supply and has to increase chip inventory on a large scale, which has caused many enterprises around the world to worry about chip supply and hoard it. The global chip supply is tight.

Generally speaking, after receiving the chip, the manufacturer will choose to use relevant instruments to test whether its performance is qualified, and there will be no direct use of the received chip on the product. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, due to urgent orders and chip shortage, some manufacturers have relaxed the limits on chip testing. Therefore, the global automotive chip enterprises require TSMC to increase the production capacity of automotive chips, and even some chip enterprises take the initiative to increase the chip OEM price by 20%, thus promoting the chip price to rise. With the rise of chip prices, some businesses saw the opportunity to make money, joined the industry of buying chips and hoarding chips, which further exacerbated the chip shortage and led to the further rise of chip prices. Chip supply is in short supply and prices are rising. In order to ensure the production of chips, some manufacturers choose to buy chips from the second-hand market. After all, the price of second-hand chips is much lower than that of new chips, which can reduce the cost. Some unscrupulous businesses began to sell fake refurbished chips for profit, resulting in the proliferation of fake and refurbished chips.

So is the demand for chips really so high in the global market? Global smartphone shipments fell by 8.8% in 2020. During this period, mobile phone shipments reached only 1.24 billion, and global smartphone shipments decreased by more than 20% year-on-year in the first quarter. In other words, the sales volume of the mobile phone market has actually decreased. Automotive chips are the first industry in short supply, but the automotive market is also declining. In 2020, car sales in the global market decreased by 13%; In the first half of this year, although the sales volume of China, the world's largest automobile market, exceeded 10 million, it was still nearly 20% lower than that of 12.32 million in 2019.

Both mobile phone and automobile industries have seen sales decline, so in fact, the demand for chips in these industries should not rise sharply. Combined with the above situation, it can be inferred that the main reason for the shortage of chip supply is probably the hoarding of manufacturers and the hoarding of middlemen in order to make money, rather than the sharp rise in demand.

Since last year, the tide of chip shortage and price rise has intensified. In order to earn a high price difference, some chip agents choose to hoard goods or even speculate to make profits. This round of chip price rise and chip shortage have seriously damaged the interests of manufacturers and consumers. Fake goods and refurbished chips have caused serious damage to manufacturers. Now manufacturers are very cautious about buying chips. In addition, chip prices rose slowly. Some middlemen believe that the rising cycle of chip prices is coming to an end and have begun to sell goods on a large scale, while consumer demand for products such as cars and mobile phones is declining. Therefore, chips may quickly change from insufficient supply to oversupply, and the falling cycle of chip prices may come.

If the chip market has been conniving at the existence of "fake chips" and letting "fake chips" go deep into the supply chain, manufacturers may eventually fail to operate the whole large-scale machine due to the disqualification of a small part, resulting in huge losses. Such a situation not only affects the reputation of the company, but also may endanger the life safety of users. Chuangxin testing always adheres to the purpose of "professional, authoritative, efficient and innovative". It has invested heavily in purchasing international advanced testing equipment. The testing is in strict accordance with international testing standards and methods. It has obtained CNAs certification and international mutual recognition qualification. Its customer base covers many countries and regions at home and abroad. It is a professional IC testing institution with excellent quality and high popularity in China. If you have any requirements related to IC chip product inspection and testing, please call Chuangxin testing, and we will serve you wholeheartedly!