ST wants to be an “honest person”, it depends on the face of the market

style=”text-indent: 2em; text-align: justify;”> In October 2020, the price of ST’s 8-bit MCU was about 2 yuan, and by July 2021, ST’s 8-bit MCU had risen to nearly 10 yuan. The price doubled several times. Some people took the opportunity to sell the chips they had hoarded before and made a fortune and realized the freedom of wealth.

Lao Liu in another city failed to find a suitable domestic substitute because of the price increase of ST MCU, and the company was on the verge of closing down.

Since the “core shortage” wave broke out in September last year, the chips of the MCU manufacturer ST (STMicroelectronics) have become the “hot star” in the price increase tide of the chip shortage. Times, faster than the price increase in Shenzhen”, forcing a lot of domestic terminal and solution providers to be forced to change chips, relying on domestic substitutions to barely survive the lack of “core” cold, but recently, there has been no news in the market. The same voice:

It is understood that, except for a few very out-of-stock part numbers, ST’s MCUs are in continuous decline. Two weeks ago, the price of the STM8S003 series dropped to 2. X yuan is lower than the price of some domestically-made MCUs. Is it possible that ST, who had been complained as a “scumbag” before, has to change its face and the market wants to make it an “honest person”?

Reading this article, you will learn:

The ups and downs of STM8S003

ST vs domestic products, who is more suitable for you?

ST market status

01

The ups and downs of STM8S003

In 2014, STM8 shipments climbed to 1 billion.

In 2016, STM8 shipments reached 2 billion, reaching the pinnacle of life, known as the king of 8-bit microcontrollers.

By 2019, the cumulative shipment of STM8 in 10 years has exceeded 4 billion, which is close to the shipment of STM32 in 10 years. Any search on the Internet is all articles boasting about it.

Although ST’s 32-bit MCUs are booming now, in some applications, STM8 can also replace STM32 functions, and compared to STM32 series microcontrollers, STM8 is cheaper and engineers are more accustomed to using it.

At present, the most used STM8 mainly includes STM8S mainstream chips, STM8L ultra-low power chips, and STM8A automotive series chips. Among them, Lao Liu used the STM8S003F3P6 of the STM8S003 series. This series of chips are mainly used in the tiny control systems of consumer electronics and home electronics.

According to Lao Liu, before 2017, the STM8S003F3P6 had stable performance and low price, and it was a model of high quality and low price. It has become a must-have for domestic terminal manufacturers to travel at home.

At that time, Lao Liu was busy upgrading his skills, and the market was full of joy and joy.

By the end of 2017, the wireless charging projects and shared bicycles that were caught by the iPhone exploded. The huge demand has doubled the price of STM8S003 series chips. Among them, STM8S003F3P6 has a minimum of 1.17 yuan in the first half of the year and 2.7 yuan by the end of the year. It’s still hard to get.

Lao Liu rode Hellobike to the company every day, looked at the Apple mobile phone in his hand, and looked at the MCU that went straight to 4 yuan, and felt panic for the first time. At that time, many domestic terminals had already begun their journey to find domestically-made alternatives. Fortunately, the old Liu family had a great career and stood in the skyrocketing STM8S003F3P6 wave without being photographed to death on the beach.

Fortunately, this round of price increases is not strong. After less than a year, the price began to be reduced. By August 2018, the price of STM8S003F3P6 was facing a cut, and the lowest fell to 1.3 yuan. Old Liu looked at the circle of friends and cried. The trader who shouted and threw the goods smiled slightly, and the mastery in his grasp emerged spontaneously.

Regrettably, Lao Liu didn’t have the last laugh after all. In September 2020, STM8S003F3P6 began to increase in price again, even more exaggerated than before.

It can be seen from the price trend of the positive energy Electronic network that the STM8S003F3P6 material was close to 10 yuan in April, far exceeding the previous price increase.

It is important to know that many small and medium-sized solution providers have a profit of only ten or twenty yuan per board. If you continue to use ST, and then remove material costs, research and development costs, etc., for companies like Lao Liu, there is no profit at all. The more you lose, the more you lose, and you won’t be able to make money even if you lose money.

The price fluctuations of STM8S003F3P6 made Lao Liu somewhat tired. Since then, Lao Liu has been living a life of relying on domestically-made replacement MCUs. Lao Liu claimed that he had changed countless MCUs, but there were always various problems, and the sum of various after-sales and indemnities far exceeded one million. But unexpectedly, the price of ST has begun to plummet again recently.

It can be seen that the current STM8S003 series chips have dropped a lot compared to the previous ones. Then, in the ups and downs of ST, for the terminal manufacturers and solution providers such as Lao Liu who have replaced the domestic substitutes, whether to re-enable ST will be a big problem. This is their primary consideration.

02

ST vs domestic products, who is more suitable for you?

In fact, since ST’s price increase, Simsex has raised questions: After ST’s price cuts, will it reconcile with ST, or will domestic chips really fragrant? (For specific articles, see recommended reading at the end of the article)

There are those who express the real fragrance of domestic products:

There is also a saying that ST will always drop the gods:

Of course, there are older brothers who are neutral, indicating that performance and price are the last word:

In fact, you can compare ST and domestic alternatives. First of all, ST has stable performance, low price, and high market share.

Regardless of the domestic and global MCU markets, ST ranks among the best and occupies an important share. In addition, ST has a high degree of connection with engineers. Some time ago, Xinshixiang interviewed Fan Gong of Jiangsu Kejia Smart Home Co., Ltd., Fan Gong said: Many engineers have been exposed to ST chips when they were in school, and even used ST as examples in school classes. , The engineers themselves are quite familiar with ST.

On the other hand, domestic chips have a low market share and have been difficult to enter the market. It was not until the lack of cores last year that the gap was opened. Customers did not dare to use them at the beginning. Yes, but individual domestic products can also be Pin to pin, so some engineers who replaced domestic products joked: domestic products are really fragrant, ST is “slag man”!

However, ST has changed a lot during this period from before. According to Quiksol’s spot market insight report, the price of most chips in STM dropped significantly in November, except for a few out-of-stock item numbers. , You must know that a few months ago, ST was still the leader in the MCU out-of-stock price increase.

In addition to price, ST’s delivery date has also changed from Q3’s short delivery period to Q4’s distribution status, as if the market is changing ST from a “scumbag” to an “honest person.”

Therefore, some people remain firm as to whether to switch back to ST, and some people get into entanglement. At this time, the “honest person” ST has a new situation.

Trader friends report: The MCU of the STM8S003 series that had fallen before has risen back again. X yuan. In this regard, Lao Liu joked: “ST is really a little girl who can be dressed up. It seems that this honest person is not good enough, but it is estimated that it will not be so exaggerated.”

Lao Liu’s words can’t help but make people fall into deep thinking: ST wants to be an “honest person”, it depends on the face of the market.

Finally, I asked Lao Liu: “Then are you still going to use ST chips?”

Old Liu scratched his hair that was not too luxuriant, took a deep breath, and began to contact ST traders.