Component supply and demand well out of balance
In its latest price analysis, iSuppli has found what it says is a 'deep and persistent schism between component supply and demand'. Key commodity components are now in short supply, causing prices to rise and lead times for some products to stretch to 20 weeks.
Supply of analogue and memory ics is tight, with demand exceeding supply, but the situation is even more critical for standard logic ics and power management discretes such as low voltage mosfets and tantalum capacitors. The market researcher says many products are effectively on allocation, with suppliers unable to respond to unforecasted demand.
Across the board, lead times are longer than forecasts indicated a month ago. Currently, lead time for discretes is 20weeks, 18 weeks for standard logic ics and 14 weeks for analogue ics. Normal lead times for such products are typically 10 to 12 weeks, says iSuppli.
