Memory leadtimes stretch
Staff -- Purchasing, 8/17/2004 2:00:00 AM
Leadtimes for many electronic components are stretching and buyers can expect the trend to continue until the fourth quarter. Twenty-nine of 41 electronic component leadtimes tracked by Purchasing magazine stretched in July.
While business cooled off in the second quarter, resulting in high inventory levels for some component manufacturers, demand appears to be starting to build up again.
The average leadtimes for flash memory stretched the most in July. Delivery times for 16 megabit (Mb) went from 6.7 weeks in June to 11.0 weeks in July. The average leadtime for 8 Mb flash went out from 8.4 weeks to 11.0 and 32 Mb flash devices went form 7.3 weeks to 11.2
The good news is more flash capacity is coming on line, which should prevent flash leadtimes from stretching any further. However, with demand building chances are delivery times for flash wont shrink despite the extra capacity. Demand for flash through the rest of the year will be strong because flash is used in a lot of consumer electronics equipment, which is in greatest demand in the fourth quarter.
Leadtimes also expanded for bipolar and CMOS logic. Bi-polar devices stretched from 5.2 weeks to 9.3 weeks and CMOS moved out from 6.6 weeks to 10.3 weeks.
Leadtimes shrunk for analog/digital converters, microprocessors, slide switches, relays and switcher power supplies.
MEMORY LEADTIMES
(monthly average)
| Apr-04 | May-04 | Jun-04 | Jul-04 | |
| DRAM: 128 Mb | 11.2 | 4.9 | 8.0 | 9.3 |
| DRAM: 64 Mb | 10.6 | 5.9 | 6.5 | 8.3 |
| DRAM: 16 Mb | 10.9 | 6.8 | 5.8 | 7.5 |
| SRAM: 4 Mb | 11.2 | 6.8 | 5.1 | 8.1 |
| SRAM: 1 Mb | 12.6 | 7.6 | 7.0 | 7.6 |
| SRAM: 256 K | 11.9 | 7.7 | 6.9 | 8.9 |
| Flash: 32 Mb | 10.1 | 8.3 | 7.3 | 11.2 |
| Flash: 16 Mb | 16.1 | 6.6 | 6.7 | 11.0 |
| Flash: 8 Mb | 19.5 | 6.0 | 8.4 | 11.0 |
| Logic: Bipolar | 15.1 | 5.6 | 5.2 | 9.3 |
| Logic: CMOS | 15.7 | 5.0 | 6.6 | 10.3 |
| MPU: 32-bit | 14.4 | 6.4 | 8.2 | 6.8 |
| MPU: 16-bit | 13.7 | 8.5 | 7.7 | 5.9 |
DRAM prices fell 40% in fourth quarter
02/19/2009More leadtimes stretch
09/20/2006More leadtimes stretch
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