Better clutch your wallet. Severe price increases are coming

It might seem that the worst of electronics prices is already behind us. Supply chains have managed to stabilize after the pandemic crisis, so manufacturers have no choice but to produce as much as possible. In such a scenario, oversupply is only a matter of time, and therefore prices will fall.

However, there is another problem going on in the background, as DigiTimes writes about in its latest report. Namely, due to high demand, raw materials are becoming more expensive, especially precious and semi-precious metals.

As it was calculated, in 2020, copper wholesale cost about USD 5,000. per ton. Today, to order the same volume of material, producers have to take up to $8,300 out of their pockets, which gives an increase of as much as 66 percent.

ICM and Yaxin Microelectronics have already sent notices to their customers about increasing the catalog prices of their products by 10-20%. – says DigiTimes. In the case of others, such as HaloChip, Chiplink, TG-Star Electronics Technology, Sanliansheng and Kangqiang Electronics, it is apparently only a matter of time.

And although all these names may sound mysterious to the consumer, the fact is that we are talking about a group of the largest suppliers of electronic components, for example SMD capacitors or DC converters, which are very widely used in today's devices.

But what does this mean? Analysts expect that in the coming months the average price of consumer electronics will increase by several to several percent. This applies to both hi-tech products, including: smartphones and laptops, as well as simpler gadgets – lights, cameras, switches, etc.