Average Prices for cooling fans used in consumer electronics products, ranging from desktop computers to personal data assistants (PDAs), continue to fall as competition heats up from Chinese manufacturers, say thermal management technology suppliers. Prices for standard to high-performance cooling fans have dropped 5–10% over the past year.

"Competitive pressures since last year have been nonrelenting," says Gene Miltimore, sales and marketing director at Sunon in Brea, Calif. "More competition from newer sources particularly in China is driving prices even further down especially on the low end."

Larger buyers typically don't source from these suppliers, but they use them as leverage to drive down prices, according to Miltimore. And the traditional supplies are fighting price declines tooth and nail. "All it takes is for one of the big suppliers such as Sanyo, Denki, Comair, Rotron, NMB or Nidec to cave in on the price against a smaller supplier and the rest will have to follow suit or get left out," he says.

The only saving issue is that materials costs are no higher than last year, Miltimore says.

"For fans, like other types of thermal management products, there is strong downward price pressure, especially for commodity-type fans," according to Andrew McWilliams, an analyst for market researcher BCC Research in Wellesley, Mass. "Unit prices are subject to commodity pricing pressures from high-volume manufacturers and many manufacturers look to reduce the number of fans in their application as a means of reducing the parts budget."

In addition, most fans used in consumer products are modified standards. "We typically start with a standard and then customize it," says Miltimore. "It can't get too customized because customers can't get multiple fan suppliers committed to the design.

Prices for a popular 40 × 10-mm fan are now below $3, compared to $3 last year. A standard 120-mm fan for desktops costs about $6, and a high-performance (high airflow, high torque) 120-mm fan costs about $8, down from about $10 last year.

Despite falling tags, the global cooling fan market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.5% from $2.1 billion in 2005 to $3.4 billion in 2011, according to BCC Research.

Sunon is projecting growth in the 15–30% range in 2007. Notebook computers, laptops, desktop computers and ultra-mobile devices, are the big drivers in the fan market, says Miltimore. But he says set-top boxes, gaming consoles, high-definition DVD players and online video machines are all new drivers in the consumer device market this year.

While suppliers don't report any capacity or availability constraints, buyers can expect longer leadtimes particularly if product is shipping from China. "We can build any of our products from start to finish in three to four weeks. But if it's shipping from China to the U.S., we quote 10–12 weeks for transportation and getting it through customs. If shipping China to China, buyers can expect four to six week leadtimes," Miltimore says.

Similarly, another top supplier notes production leadtimes run about two to four weeks with deliveries in the four to eight week range.

Key technology trends for fans center on lower noise and lower power consumption. Noise is a big issue particularly in consumer products, along with lower power consumption and pulse-width-modulation (PWM).


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