Prices Soar Up to Tenfold! "Electronic Industry Rice" Sees Price Spike

Title context: Prices Soar Up to Tenfold! "Electronic Industry Rice" Sees Price Spike Text: MLCC (Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor), known in the industry as the "rice of the electronics industry." From small devices like phones and home appliances to large ones like AI servers and new energy vehicles, almost all electronic devices depend on it. Recently, the components market has seen extreme divergence: AI-driven high-capacity models are out of stock and soaring in price, with some spot prices surging severalfold; ordinary consumer-grade products have spiked and then fallen back. Behind this hot-and-cold contrast is the disruption caused by the AI computing power wave. Huaqiangbei Spot Market: Prices Change Every Hour, Up to Tenfold Increases This round of MLCC price increases was first ignited by overseas leaders. Japan's Murata, Taiyo Yuden, and South Korea's Samsung Electro-Mechanics successively issued price increase notices, with original manufacturers' prices for high-capacity MLCCs used in AI servers generally rising 15%35%. But in the Shenzhen Huaqiang Industry North spot market, price fluctuations are far more volatile than original manufacturers' adjustments. The rally began to ferment at the end of May. News of exploding AI computing power demand transmitted to the components market, and major overseas manufacturers shifted large amounts of consumer-grade capacity to high-end AI products. The market feared tightening supply of conventional materials, and channel distributors rushed to stockpile and snap up goods. Entering June, the spot market entered a heated state of "one price a day, even one price an hour," with some popular models rising 78 times in just one month, and spot prices being driven up to 210 times the original price at the highest. Hot and Cold: Consumer-Grade Spikes and Falls Back, High-Capacity Still in Short Supply By early July, spot prices hit their peak and then quickly reversed. Channel distributors who had stockpiled heavily in the earlier period concentrated on selling off inventory, but downstream consumer electronics end demand was weak, and consumer-grade MLCC prices saw a clear correction. Merchant Chen Zhixiao cited the market's most common part number, 0603-104, as an example: "This is the most commonly used capacitor of all. In the second quarter, 1,000 pieces cost about 5 yuan; at the peak at the end of June, they could sell for 30 yuan, and now they have fallen back to 10 yuan." The market has split into two completely separate trends: ordinary consumer-grade MLCCs have returned to rationality after a round of sharp increases; high-capacity MLCCs for AI servers and automotive-grade applications remain in a state of shortage and rising prices. AI Computing Power Explosion Structural Supply-Demand Imbalance in MLCC This round of price increases is not a broad rise across the entire industry. It is essentially a structural supply-demand imbalance brought about by the rise of the AI industry. The core DRIVE comes from the iterative upgrading of AI servers, AI workstations, and high-speed optical modules. Enterprises engaged in AI intelligent computing terminal production report that after products are upgraded from ordinary mini PCs to AI workstations, the total MLCC usage per unit increases 23 times, demand for high-capacity products nearly doubles, and a single circuit board must carry hundreds of MLCCs. High-speed optical modules have also become an important incremental driver. 800G and 1.6T optical modules are accelerating in volume, and a single 1.6T optical module requires 5001,000 MLCCs. Orders from related communications enterprises doubled year-on-year in the third quarter and grew 50%60% quarter-on-quarter, with high-power products further amplifying procurement demand for highly reliable MLCCs. Analyst Hu Yang pointed out that the industry is completing a demand cycle shift, with the main growth driver moving from traditional consumer electronics to AI computing equipment and high-voltage new energy vehicles. Rising power consumption in AI servers not only increases the number of components used but also pushes products toward smaller sizes and higher capacitance; advanced intelligent driving in new energy vehicles brings long-term stable market increments. Orders Booked Through 2027 Domestic Manufacturers Accelerate Capacity Expansion to Fill the Gap After overseas leaders tilted their capacity focus toward high-end AI specifications, capacity for conventional high-capacity products was squeezed, and a large number of downstream enterprises turned to domestic manufacturers, significantly accelerating the pace of MLCC import substitution. At present, some domestic manufacturers' orders for high-end AI specifications have been booked through the second quarter of 2027. Downstream procurement strategies have changed accordingly. In the past, orders were placed 12 months in advance; now capacity is often locked in 36 months ahead. Some agents report that, benefiting from import substitution, their third-quarter orders rose twofold compared with the first quarter, and material delivery times lengthened from the original 68 weeks to 16 weeks. Facing the shortage of high-end materials, domestic enterprises have successively launched capacity expansions, focusing on AI servers and automotive-grade high-capacity MLCCs. After one company's new capacity is fully put into operation, its monthly standardized capacity will approach 80 billion pieces. Institutions predict that the high-end MLCC supply gap will persist from the fourth quarter of 2026 to the first half of 2027; after new capacity is released in the second half of 2027, the tight situation will ease marginally, but full supply-demand balance for the whole year will still be difficult to achieve. This article is reprinted from "Cailian Press"; GMTEight editor: Yan Wencai.