Tantalum ore could push up capacitor prices
Tantalum prices could go up by as much as 85% next year affecting capacitor price
By Jim Carbone -- Purchasing, 11/6/2008 3:21:00 PM
Buyers could face price increases for tantalum capacitors after the first of the year because of higher tantalum ore and powder costs, according to suppliers.
Tantalum mining companies say that they plan to increase the price of tantalum ore in January. “They say electronics is a small portion of their business and they can’t make money,” says Dan Lane, marketing manager at AVX Corp. in Myrtle Beach, S.C. “They are threatening to raise prices for tantalum ore 80-85% at the first of the year.”
Mining companies provide tantalum ore to refiners which produce tantalum powders used by capacitor companies. While tantalum ore prices may increase 85%, that doesn’t mean capacitor prices will rise 85%. How much prices increase remains to be seen, but price increases may not be across the board and may affect parts in larger cases sizes that use more powder or high purity material.
“If it is a higher purity material, the price goes up more. Typically those materials are used in lower equivalent series resistance (ESR) parts and is a direct reflection on what we are putting into the part,” says Lane.
Prices for some larger case size parts increased this year after refiners increased powder prices 20-40%, he says. As a result, AVX increased prices 20-30% for larger case size parts.
Commodity parts in smaller case sizes won’t be affected as much because they are likely to be designed out of products if the price is too high. “We know that the market will give way in the lower capacitance, high-value segment to high capacitance/voltage ceramics because the pricing is much lower,” says Lane. However, the higher end of the market requires more performance which ceramic capacitors cannot deliver.
Whether tantalum ore prices increase 85% remains to be seen. Prices may go up, but perhaps not that high, according to some suppliers.
“We have a good understanding of what we think will happen at the first of the year,” says Lane. “We are not concerned about a major increase coming in January. We buy quite a bit of powder so we can sustain it for awhile. Unless something dramatic happens we will be OK for a while,” he says.
Also see: Suppliers to increase capacitor production
Tantalum capacitor supply could tighten
10/14/2009
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