The passive component market faces a number of issues as we head into 2021, and shortages are being forecast. If you have need of these components next year, it may be time to find access and check your supply chains.

SemiMedia is reporting that while manufacturing of passive components should see a 11.1% increase next year, demand will exceed 15% and prices of MLCC and chip resistors could go up in Q2 and Q3.

“Taking automotive electronics as an example,, due to the significant increase in demand for automotive entertainment systems, ADAS, Internet of Vehicles and other applications driven by electric vehicles, the proportion of automotive electronic components in automotive parts will increase significantly to 35% to 50%, and passive components such as MLCC and chip resistors are the most used,” according to SemiMedia.

“Since late 2017, companies managing electronic components have been facing challenging times with successive waves of supply shortages, price hikes and lengthening lead times. A major surge in demand on one side and a critical materials and parts shortage on the other strained capabilities to meet demand, especially for more standard passive components, such as multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC), resistors, transistors, diodes and even memory. Suppliers were quoting lead times averaging 20-30 weeks—and this is all before the pandemic,” Jabil noted while explaining shortage issues .

The pandemic has impacted all suppliers regardless of location and supply chains have seen all inventory already gone, while lead times for restocking have doubled, Jabil noted. “The lead time for high-end semiconductors, which is usually long, doubled from 18 weeks to 36 weeks”.

The popularity of 5G smartphones and the rising demand for applications such as electric vehicles and automotive electronics will continue through 2021, adding to the shortages.

Online Components is here to help its customers. Please reach out to us and let us know what you will need for 2021 so we can be better prepared to help meet your demands. New customers seeking help can contact cs@onlinecomponents.com.