In 2017, the price hikes were blowing all the way from semiconductor silicon wafers, passive components, and MOSFETs to resistors, aluminum electrolytic capacitors, and diodes. At the beginning of the new year, not only Yageo and Lizhi Electronics raised the price of resistors, but also Nichicon and Zhibao raised the price of aluminum electrolytic capacitors, and diodes could not escape the price increase. The price increase notice issued by Yageo on January 10 seems to have set the tone for the component industry in 2018. Today, aluminum electrolytic capacitors, resistors, MLCC and other markets have fired the gun of price increases!

Aluminum foil is in short supply, and aluminum electrolytic capacitors trigger the first round of price increases

On January 10, Nichicon announced that it would adjust the price of all models of pin-type and screw-type aluminum electrolytic capacitors by 5% when it could not digest the price increase of raw materials and the shortage of main material foil. Nichicon's price increase announcement triggered 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 recently been strictly controlled by the government to control the amount of wastewater treatment, and some small manufacturers have been eliminated, resulting in a shortage of aluminum foil and a rise in prices. With the increasingly strict environmental protection requirements, under the circumstance that the current price of electronic aluminum foil has risen slightly, the enthusiasm of enterprises to resume production through environmental protection transformation is not high; the cycle of environmental protection transformation is long, and even if funds are raised for transformation, it will be difficult to resume production in the short term.

At present, the aluminum power plant believes that there may be a shortage of high, medium and low voltage aluminum foil in 2018, and no manufacturer can guarantee that it can get a sufficient supply. Taiwanese manufacturers say that the supply of aluminum foil is in short supply, and the impact of the shortage of aluminum foil in mainland China in November and December is about 15%. -25%. Today, with the announcement of Nichicon's price increase, Japanese capacitor manufacturers have raised prices, and the industry expects that capacitor manufacturers will not rule out further price increases in the cost of aluminum foil materials in the future.

The sixth manufacturer, the price increase of resistors continues to spread

Recently, Housheng International Trade (Kunshan) issued an announcement saying that due to the increase in environmental protection requirements, the prices of various raw materials continued to rise, and some of the company's chip exclusions were increased by 15-20% on the basis of the current price. Since 2018, original resistor manufacturers such as Wangquan, Guangjie Technology, Lizhi Electronics, Yageo, and Huaxinke have successively issued price increase notices. Housheng is the sixth company to announce a price increase this year.

Since the end of 2017, Kunshan City has issued an emergency notice requiring 270 enterprises in the city to completely stop production. When it comes to the impact, although the production stop order has been suspended, people in the industry believe that "not implemented" does not mean "will not be implemented". This is undoubtedly a forecast policy trend. Once similar policies are implemented, it will further limit the release of resistance production capacity, which will intensify at that time. Resistor supply is tight. Market participants pointed out that the supply of resistor products above 0603 may be in short supply in the second quarter, and it is also necessary to observe the impact of the emission restriction measures in Kunshan, mainland China.

Soaring at home and abroad, the global high-voltage MOSFET market gap reaches 30%

Domestic semiconductor power device MOSFET manufacturers have raised prices one after another, and now international manufacturers have also announced price increases. Vishay, an international manufacturer of discrete components and passive components, said that due to rising product costs in the discrete component market, the price of new orders will increase, and the price of unshipped orders will also be adjusted from March 1.

MOSFET is one of the most commonly used power semiconductor devices and is widely used in a variety of electronic products and systems. Driven by new iPhone products, wireless charging is becoming a new application introduced by domestic mobile phone and accessory manufacturers. Coupled with the rapid improvement of the application level, the demand for MOSFET is strong. At the same time, the global electric vehicle market is growing rapidly, and the demand for MOSFETs is urgent. The sales volume in the automotive application field surpasses the computing and data storage fields, accounting for more than 20% of the overall market.

Previously, many original factories at home and abroad issued notices of price increases from January 1, 2018. Domestic manufacturers such as Fuman Electronics, Huaguan Semiconductor, Xindianyuan, Xinmao Microelectronics, Yuxin Electronics, Nanjing Weimeng, etc. , LED driver IC, MOSFET and other products have been adjusted in price, and some rose by 15%-20%. It is said that MOSFET has the largest increase. It is predicted that the supply and demand gap of the global high-voltage MOSFET chip market will still reach 30% in the first half of 2018, and the main production capacity in the first half of 2018 has been booked out.

Raising prices four times a year, MLCC shortages will continue until the end of 2018

Since the second half of 2016, MLCC has ushered in a tide of shortages and price increases, and the tight supply and demand situation has not eased today. In 2017, MLCC manufacturers such as Fenghua Hi-Tech, TDK, and Huaxin Technology announced price increases one after another. Yageo raised prices four times within a year. Product price increases seem to have become a unified move in the industry.

In the in-vehicle market, the development of new energy vehicles and ADAS automatic assisted driving is faster than the original factory imagined, and the demand is increasing rapidly. As a result, component suppliers cannot keep up with production capacity in time, and there will naturally be shortages. In addition, the previous consumer MLCC manufacturers were not able to quickly enter the automotive MLCC market due to the limitations of equipment investment, production process, technology research and development and other factors, which further led to the shortage of vehicle MLCCs.

On the other hand, the outbreak of mobile phone market demand is one reason why MLCC is out of stock. Although the mobile phone market has become saturated in recent years, the functions and performance of mobile phones are getting stronger and stronger, resulting in an increase in the demand for MLCCs 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 the high-end market. The amount of MLCC required by high-end products has increased, and higher requirements have been placed on the quality of MLCC.

According to the existing raw material supply, industrial structure and productivity forecast, the shortage of MLCC will continue until the end of 2018.

Conclusion

The above is about the price increase of electronic components. Industry insiders said that at present, the price increase of chip resistors has begun to catch up with MLCC, and the market driving is mainly caused by the automotive and industrial markets.

At the same time, because some manufacturers cannot bear the rising cost of raw materials and labor, they have raised their ex-factory prices one after another. This has also caused various agents/traders in the market to increase prices. The factory is fully loaded, but the market is in short supply. With the growth of customer demand, the possibility of roasted seeds and seeds cannot be ruled out at present. What the situation is, manufacturers and users need to keep their eyes open and identify them carefully.