The continuous shortage of semiconductors is rapidly snowballing into a comprehensive shortage of parts, highlighting the fragility of the current supply chain. Copper is the latest commodity in short supply, which may further push up the prices of various electronic products. Citing DIGITIMES, the supply of copper foil used to manufacture printed circuit boards continued to be insufficient, resulting in increased costs for suppliers. Therefore, people have to doubt that these cost burdens will be passed on to consumers in the form of rising prices of electronic products.
A quick look at the copper market will show that at the end of December 2020, the sales price of copper is US $7845.40 per ton. Today, the price of the commodity is US $9262.85 per ton, an increase of US $1417.45 per ton in the past nine months.
According to Tom’s hardware, the price of copper foil has soared 35% since the fourth quarter due to the rising production costs of copper and energy. This in turn increases the cost of PCB. To make the situation worse, other industries are also increasingly dependent on copper. The media has comprehensively subdivided the current cost of copper foil roll and how many ATX boards can be produced by a roll of copper foil for those who want to have an in-depth understanding of the economic situation.
Although the prices of various electronic products may rise as a result, products such as motherboards and graphics cards may be the most affected because they use large PCBS with high layers. In this subset, the price difference of budget hardware may be felt the most. For example, high-end motherboards already have a large premium, and manufacturers may be more willing to absorb small price increases at this level.
Post time: Oct-07-2021