Grey market blues

The prevalence of counterfeit components is growing significantly, due partly to companies failing to plan contingency against the threat of obsolescence. In a desperate attempt to maintain production harmony, they use supply channels of unauthorised component markets and end up with a bad case of grey market blues! ACAL Technology’s sales and marketing director, Steve Carr reckons that, just like rock ‘n’ roll, counterfeiting will never die. “Counterfeiting is driven by the simple economics of demand and supply, and by the imperative of obtaining market prominence through the continual release of new and innovative products, which speeds product development and generates a significant reduction in product life cycles. “It’s this heated industry environment that makes the technology sector appear to offer rich pickings. As more component manufacturing migrates to Asia, where manufacturing lines are easily replicated and where the total cost of production is massively reduced, counterfeiting is increasingly becoming a global phenomenon.”