The number of MLCCs that Samsung Electro-Mechanics will supply directly to North American electric vehicle company A is expected to increase. This change occurred while Company A was pursuing the optimization of production efficiency through direct procurement of core components. Samsung Electro-Mechanics' MLCC sales are expected to exceed 20% this year.

Industry insiders said on the 13th that the number and proportion of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) that Samsung Electro-Mechanics will directly supply to Company A, a major electric vehicle company in North America, is expected to increase significantly this year. MLCC is a component that controls the steady flow of current in electronic product circuits. An industry insider said, “Company A has recently formulated a plan to directly purchase key components of electric vehicles and optimize production efficiency. Therefore, the proportion of MLCCs that Samsung Electro-Mechanics supplies directly to Company A is expected to increase.”

Samsung Electro-Mechanics has been indirectly supplying MLCCs to Company A through Tier 1 component manufacturers such as Bosch and Continental, but the new policy is expected to change.

As the number of MLCCs that Samsung Electro-Mechanics supplies directly to Company A increases, the lineup of MLCC products that Samsung Electro-Mechanics supplies to Company A is also expected to diversify. Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced that it will develop 2 MLCCs for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in 2021, and 13 MLCCs for automotive powertrains that can withstand high temperatures of 150°C in 2022.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics explained that the MLCC developed for ADAS in 2021 meets the reliability test standard AEC-Q200 for automotive electronic components. In addition to ADAS, it can also be used in automotive body, chassis, infotainment, etc. MLCCs for powertrains are the components that require the highest reliability in electronic products. Since Samsung Electro-Mechanics announced last year that it will supply MLCCs for powertrains to global customers, it is expected that there will be opportunities to supply MLCCs for powertrains to Company A in the future.

This year, Samsung Electro-Mechanics' MLCC sales are expected to account for more than 20%. It is understood that the share of automotive electronics in MLCC sales last year was around 10%. In the past, Samsung Electro-Mechanics accounted for an absolute proportion of MLCC in IT products, and a negligible proportion in automotive and industrial MLCC. The new Tianjin MLCC plant mainly produces MLCCs for electric vehicles and high-end IT products. The area of the new Tianjin factory is 1.4 times that of the existing Tianjin factory.

With the increase of Samsung Electro-Mechanics' market share in the automotive MLCC market, it is expected that Japan's Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., TDK, and Taiyo Yuden will officially start catching up. In the high temperature and high pressure automotive MLCC market, Murata, TDK, and Taiyo Yuden are strong players.

In addition to MLCC, Samsung Electro-Mechanics also supplies camera modules to Company A. In the automotive camera module market of Company A, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and LG Innotek have established a two-way system. Company A announced earlier this month that it will build a new factory in Mexico. At present, Company A's production capacity of electric vehicles is about 2 million units per year.

Last year, Samsung Electro-Mechanics reported sales of 3,707.7 billion won and operating profit of 354.3 billion won in its parts division, which includes MLCCs. Compared with the previous year, sales were down 16% and operating profit was down 56%. Last year, the performance of the optical communication solutions division was 1,463.9 billion won in sales, with an operating loss of 19.6 billion won. Package Solution Division's sales were 2.733 trillion won and operating profit was 465 billion won. Last year, total sales were 7,244.9 billion won and operating profit was 799.6 billion won. Compared with the previous year, sales rose 0.6 percent and operating profit fell 26 percent.

On the other hand, the internal operating temperature of the powertrain will rise to 150°C due to power consumption and heat generation during power transmission to the vehicle, so the MLCC installed inside must be particularly reliable. MLCC generally lowers its capacitance to store energy in an environment higher than the guaranteed temperature. 85°C for IT products, 125°C for electric vehicles, and 150°C for powertrains.

Source: THEELEC