The Electronic Components Industry Association (ECIA) has reported that global sales of capacitors, inductors, resistors and other passive components increased by 25.2 percent in calendar 2018. Unit shipments of these devices grew by 16.7 percent to 7.4 trillion. Last year was marked by severe shortages in passive components, particularly certain types of capacitors. Demand is…
PC and server DRAM prices have plummeted by nearly 30 percent so far in the first quarter of 2019, according to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. This is a deeper plunge than the projected drop of 25 percent expected last month and is the sharpest tumble since 2011. At the same time, most contracts have transitioned…
U.S. manufacturers may be facing a bumpy ride in Q1 as the nation’s factory activity cooled in February. New orders, production and employment all declined from January levels, according to the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), and the PMI dropped 2.4 percentage points to 54.2 percent. As long as the PMI remains above 50, the manufacturing industry continues to expand. “We are still in the…
The nation’s manufacturing sector regained some lost ground in January as demand, production and consumption all increased from December, the Institute for Supply Management reported. At the close of 2018, the ISM’s factory index, the PMI, dropped by a precipitous 5.4 percent to 54.3. January’s PMI inched up 2.3 percentage points to 56.6. Any number…
Both DRAM and NAND flash prices are expected to decline in the 10-percent range in the first quarter (Q1) of 2019. DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, forecasts DRAM prices will drop by 10 percent or higher in Q1 while NAND flash prices will fall by nearly 10 percent. This is a steeper slide than last…
U.S. purchasing and supply executives are entering 2019 with a bit less enthusiasm than 2018, although optimism remains strong for the next calendar year. Sixty-four percent of U.S. manufacturers polled by the Institute for Supply Management expect their revenue will grow by 5.7 percent in 2019, compared with the 5.1 percent increase predicted for 2018.…
After a significant cool down last month, the U.S. manufacturing industry bounced back in November with growth in new orders, production and employment. Overall, U.S. production has been expanding for 27 consecutive months, although manufacturers tapped the brakes in October. The nation’s leading production index, the Institute for Supply Management’s PMI, increased 1.6 percentage points…
As the electronics industry plows through calendar Q4, murmurs of uncertainty around 2019 are surfacing. Analysts say there’s a possibility that demand for electronic components will cool in 2019, and tariffs continue to fuel uncertainty throughout the electronics supply chain. “Semiconductor memory ASPs are going to fall. Semiconductor sales are going to decline. The U.S…
In 2018, a mixed bag of higher prices, shortages, and new imaging applications is driving up total optoelectronics, sensors and discrete semiconductors (O-S-D) sales by 11 percent and expected to set a ninth consecutive record-high level of combined revenues. With tight supplies of widely used power transistors and diodes driving up prices and new optical-imaging applications moving…
The market for microcontrollers (MCUs) —the IC industry’s original system-on-chip (SoC) product category—is expected to continue hitting record-high annual revenues through 2022 after worldwide sales dropped 6 percent in 2016 because of a slowdown in MCU unit shipments. After drawing down MCU inventories in 2016, systems manufacturers stepped up purchases of microcontrollers in 2017 with unit…