In 2017, the rising price wind blew from semiconductor silicon wafers, passive components, and MOSFETs all the way to resistors, aluminum electrolytic capacitors, and diodes. At the beginning of the new year, not only did Guoju and Lizhi Electronics raise the price of resistors, but Nijikang and Zhibao raised the price of aluminum electrolytic capacitors, and diodes could not escape the price increase. The price increase notice issued by Guoju on January 10 seems to have set the tone for the components industry in 2018. Today, aluminum electrolytic capacitors, resistors, MLCC and other markets have fired the price of the gun!
Aluminum foil is in short supply, aluminum electrolytic capacitors trigger the first round of price increases
On January 10, Nikkon announced to adjust the price increase of all models of pin-type and screw-type aluminum electrolytic capacitors by 5% when it was unable to digest the price increase of raw materials and the supply of foil paper, the main material. Nikkon's price increase statement touched the first round of price increases for aluminum electrolytic capacitors in 2018.
It is reported that the upstream raw materials of aluminum electrolytic capacitors have been strictly controlled by the government recently, and some small manufacturers have been eliminated, resulting in a shortage of aluminum foil and a rise in prices. With the increasingly stringent requirements of environmental protection, in the current electronic aluminum foil prices rose slightly, the enthusiasm of enterprises to resume production through environmental protection transformation is not high; the cycle of environmental protection transformation is longer, even if funds are raised for transformation, it is difficult to resume production in the short term.
At present, aluminum power plants believe that there may be a shortage of low-voltage aluminum foil in Senior high school in 2018, and no manufacturer can guarantee that it can get a full supply of goods. Taiwan operators say that aluminum foil is in short supply, and the impact of aluminum foil shortage in mainland China in November and December is about 15%-25%. Now, with the price increase notice issued by Nikkon, Japanese capacitor manufacturers have already increased their prices, and the industry expects that the capacitor factory will not rule out further price increases reflecting the cost of aluminum foil materials in the future.
Sixth manufacturers, resistance price increases continue to spread.
Recently, Housheng International Trade (Kunshan) announced that due to the increase in environmental protection requirements, various raw materials continue to rise in price, and some of the company's chip exclusion has increased by 15-20% from the current selling price. Since 2018, Wangxuan, Guangxuan Technology, Lizhi Electronics, Guoju, Huaxinke and other resistance original factories have issued price increase notices. Thick Voice is the sixth company to issue a price increase announcement this year.
Since the end of 2017, Kunshan City has issued an emergency notice requiring 270 enterprises within the city to stop production in an all-round way. The original manufacturers of Housheng, Wangquan and Lizhi, which supply about 360 billion resistors per month in the world, have also received the impact. Although the suspension order has been suspended, industry insiders believe that "not implemented" does not mean "will not be implemented". This is undoubtedly a forecast policy trend. Once similar policies are implemented, will further limit the release of resistance capacity, will exacerbate the resistance supply constraints. Market participants pointed out that the supply of resistance products above 0603 may be tight in the second quarter, and it is also necessary to observe the impact of the emission restriction measures in Kunshan, mainland China.
Domestic and international surge, the global high-voltage MOSFET market gap reached 30%
Domestic semiconductor power device MOSFET manufacturers price increases one after another, and now the international manufacturers also announced price increases. Vishay, an international manufacturer of discrete devices and passive components, said that due to the rising cost of products in the discrete device market, the price of new orders has increased, and the price of undelivered orders will also be adjusted from March 1.
MOSFET is one of the most commonly used power semiconductor devices, widely used in a variety of electronic products and systems. Driven by the new iPhone, wireless charging is becoming a new application introduced by domestic mobile phone and accessory manufacturers, coupled with the rapid improvement of the application level, MOSFET demand is strong. At the same time, the global electric vehicle market is accelerating and the demand for MOSFETs is urgent. Sales in the automotive application field surpass the computing and data storage fields, accounting for more than 20% of the total market.
Prior to this, many original factories at home and abroad issued price increase notices starting from January 1, 2018. Domestic manufacturers such as Fuman Electronics, Huaguan Semiconductor, Core Dianyuan, Core Mao Microelectronics, Yuxin Electronics, Nanjing Weimeng, etc. have adjusted the prices of power IC, LED driver IC, MOSFET and other products, some of which have increased by 15%-20%. MOSFET is said to have the largest increase. It is predicted that the supply and demand gap in the global high-voltage MOSFET chip market will still reach 30% in the first half of 2018, and the main production capacity has been booked out in the first half of 2018.
Four price increases a year, MLCC shortage tide will continue until the end of 2018
Since the second half of 2016, MLCC has ushered in a wave of out-of-stock price increases, and the supply and demand tensions have not eased to this day. In 2017, MLCC manufacturers such as Fenghua Gaoke, TDK and Huaxin Technology announced price increases one after another, and Guoju raised prices four times a year. Product price increases seem to have become a unified action in the industry.
In the on-board market, the development speed of new energy vehicles and ADAS automatic assisted driving is faster than the original factory imagined, and the demand is growing rapidly, resulting in component suppliers unable to keep up with production capacity in time, and there will naturally be out of stock. In addition, the past to do consumer MLCC manufacturers due to equipment investment, production technology, technology research and development and other factors, can not quickly move to the automotive MLCC market, but also further lead to the shortage of vehicle MLCC.
On the other hand, the outbreak of mobile phone market demand MLCC out of stock is a reason. Although the mobile phone market has become saturated in recent years, the functions and performance of mobile phones are becoming stronger and stronger, resulting in the growth of MLCC demand for a single mobile phone. In addition, Chinese mobile phone brands have begun to rise collectively. Huawei, oppo, vivo, Xiaomi and other mobile phone brands have transformed into high-end markets. The amount of MLCC required for high-end products has increased, and higher requirements have been put forward for the quality of MLCC.
Based on the existing raw material supply, industrial structure and productivity forecast, the shortage of MLCC will continue until the end of 2018.
Epilogue
The above is about the price increase of electronic components. Industry insiders said that at present, the price increase of SMD resistors has begun to be in line with MLCC, and the market is mainly driven by the automotive and industrial markets.
At the same time, as some manufacturers cannot afford the rise in raw materials and labor costs, they have raised ex-factory prices one after another, which has also caused all kinds of agents/traders in the market to raise prices, factories are fully loaded, but the market is in short supply. however, this does not represent the growth of end-customer demand, and the possibility of speculation cannot be ruled out at present. How the situation, but also need manufacturers and users to polish eyes, carefully identify.