Leadtimes stretch

Staff -- Purchasing, 10/20/2005

Leadtimes for 31 of 41 electronic components tracked monthly by PURCHASING magazine lengthened in September, indicating demand is picking up after the summer slowdown.

Leadtimes expanded across most product categories with the biggest increases occurring for digital/analog converters, resistors and flash memory. The average leadtime for a digital/analog converter increased from 2.7 weeks in August to 6.6 weeks in September. Analog/digital converter delivery times went from 3.5 weeks to 6.3 weeks. The survey also found that 16 megabit flash memory leadtimes stretched from 6.2 weeks in August to 9.1 weeks in September. Leadtimes also expanded for other density flash devices.

Leadtimes also stretched for passive devices. The average delivery time for a carbon film resistor went out from 2.9 weeks in August to 5.1 weeks in September, while resistor network leadtimes expanded from 4.5 weeks to 5.7 weeks.

A handful of leadtimes shortened in September including 128 Mb DRAMs, DIP and pushbutton switches, d-subminiature connectors and nickel cadmium batteries. However, leadtimes for those components shrunk by less than one week.