Capacitors are the category with the highest output value among passive devices, accounting for more than 65%. No matter if it is a mobile phone, a computer or a household appliance, all electronic products cannot be separated from capacitors, and they are used in huge quantities. For example, a small battery module requires five or six resistors and capacitors, and a large battery module requires dozens of them. The capacitor industry was originally a mature market. However, since 2016, the market voices of capacitor price increases and shortages have been one after another, which has brought many challenges to the upstream and downstream of the industry.
Under the dual impact of the outbreak of the epidemic and the demand blowout, the capacity gap of capacitors is already very severe in 2020, and the continuation of the epidemic in 2021 makes the challenge even more severe. Under the epidemic situation, upstream raw material manufacturers were the first to respond by grafting the cost of price increases to the middle and lower reaches. Entering 2021, the price increase of passive devices has been the "first shot" by manufacturers of upstream raw materials for resistors. In mid-January 2021, China's alumina ceramic substrate leader Chaozhou Sanhuan Group took the lead in raising prices, and officially increased the contract quotations of major customers including the world's second largest chip resistor factory by more than 15%. It was then transmitted to midstream resistor manufacturers. Ralec, a resistor manufacturer under Kellett, said that due to strong demand and full capacity, it has stopped accepting orders of thick film chip resistors from distributors in the Greater China region on January 14. In this regard, the capacitor supply chain worries that the current supply of resistors is quite tight, and key upstream materials have soared, which will surely ignite the price hikes of midstream manufacturers. The capacitive resistance is highly correlated, which may trigger a price hike again, so the market attitude has become extremely cautious.
As a manufacturer specializing in the production and supply of alumina ceramic substrates and aluminum nitride ceramic substrates, UNIPRETEC has received explosive related orders after the Lunar New Year. The current production line has been heavily loaded, causing many orders to be delayed. Our company has planned the establishment of a new production line in March 2021, and it is expected to be put into operation in July 2021. We hope that the current problems can be effectively solved by then.
