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The Industry News and Analysis You Need to Know

Taiwan Quake Spares TSMC But Rattles Supply Chain Concerns

The 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Taiwan on Tuesday had only a minimal impact on the operations of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s leading semiconductor foundry. However, the event raised renewed concerns over the supply chain impact of future potential disasters in the country.
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PCBs, Potential Tariffs, and Pricing

The announced 10% U.S. tariffs for Chinese imports will increase electronic component pricing and upon the entire electronics supply chain. Consider PCBs for China accounts for more than half of the global market. The hyper growth AI data center segment is reliant on high-layer-count PCBs. China represents over a third total production. Chinese firms also enjoy upward of 60% market share for other advanced PCBs in artificial intelligence servers but for a myriad end markets. While AI gets all the attention—worldwide aerospace & defense demand for PCBs is growing markedly and electronic component sourcing in the space is in China-Zero verses China-Plus-One modes.
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Component Inventories Low

The Commodity IQ Inventory Index fell to less than half of the pre-pandemic baseline across all electronic component commodities. Demand softness outside of the robust growth in the high-performance compute sector resulted in both passive and semiconductor device manufacturers reducing capacity utilization, with some passive players having moved to below 50% and semiconductor makers to between 65% and 85%. Coupled with front-loading in advance of import and export tariff expansions, component buyers are advised to be on the lookout for any significant demand increases as the market will tighten quickly.
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Connector Suppliers Warn of Possible Constraints

Short lead-time connector orders, particularly for high-speed connectors, are to avoided. Current lead times for these devices could easily double from 8 weeks. The Asia-Pacific region continues to account for about half of global connector production. And, although shrinking year-on-year by single-digit percentages for the last several years – China remains the dominate player with about 30% market share, heightening concerns in the current China-Zero sourcing environment. The Commodity IQ Inventory Index for connectors is forecast to hover just below the baseline through Q2.
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Foundry Costs Lifting Programmable Logic Prices

Short lead-time connector orders, particularly for high-speed connectors, are to avoided. Current lead times for these devices could easily double from 8 weeks. The Asia-Pacific region continues to account for about half of global connector production. And, although shrinking year-on-year by single-digit percentages for the last several years – China remains the dominate player with about 30% market share, heightening concerns in the current China-Zero sourcing environment. The Commodity IQ Inventory Index for connectors is forecast to hover just below the baseline through Q2.
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Resistor Pricing to Climb in Q1 and Q2 2025

The Commodity IQ Demand Index for resistors is projected to increase meaningfully into Q2 2025, recovering from its contraction from Q4 into Q1 2025. Pricing, inevitably, will trend upward with the increased demand. According to the latest Commodity IQ Price Index forecast, resistor prices will increase by 5% between the start and end of Q4. Another 8% increase is estimated to follow quarter-on-quarter in Q2 2025.
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