Switches, relays & keyboards
PriceS could riSe for relayS, SwitcheS
Rising demand coupled with a lean inventory pipeline contributed to a tight supply of electromechanical relays last year, which has continued into 2011 for some product lines. By Gina Roos
A strong recovery is underway in the electromechanical switch and relaymarket with increased demand fromseveral sectors including home appliances, building automation, and automotive, say switch and relay suppliers. Also, keyboardmakers report strong growth in the security,medical and point-of-sale (POS)markets.
Electromechanical device suppliers expect fairly stable lead
times in 2011 with the exception of electromechanical relays, particularly general-purpose PCB types, which have been on allocation since last year.
"Lead times are crazy for general-purpose relays," saidMichael
Knight, vice president of productmarketing and supplier marketing, TTI Inc, Ft.Worth, Tex. "All last year, Omron and Panasonic ElectricWorks products were on allocation, and they still have a lot of product on allocation," he added.
Knight says a shortage of specific copper wires that are used in
the relays contributed to the tight supply. In addition to continued allocation, relay and switch buyers
should watch for price hikes in 2011 due to risingmaterials costs. "There has been a good recovery in the switchmarket," said
Kiyoko Toyama, president, NKK Switches (Scottsdale, Ariz.). "The challenge is price pressure. Everyone is facing highermaterials costs for bothmetals and plastics andwe can't always pass the increase on to customers, partially because of competition," she added.
Bill Chandler,marketingmanager, Omron Electronics,
Schaumburg, Ill., agreed. "If you look at the labor situation in Asia and look at the
processing costs of some of the rawmaterials to take it froma commodity state to a usable state for electromechanical relays or switches, the costs have gone up in every area," he said.
Chandler says thatmaterials costs have had a significant impact
on pricing, along with logistics costs. "We've implemented some increases throughout 2010 and they vary based upon industry and commodity type," he added.
Omron anticipates additional increases this year to offset some
of the recent fluctuations in copper and silver prices that are being passed on fromits suppliers. "These are ongoing as contracts come up for renewal," Chandler said.
16 | April 2011 Toyama also expects price increases this year for certain lines.
Tomitigate costs, like other suppliers, NKK is improving manufacturing efficiency and buyingmaterials in larger volume.
On the customer side, Toyama "would like to see buyers
evaluate our history, performance, quality, lead times, and customer service. All of that should be considered into a buying decision, not just the price."
Shortages
Overall, lead times for switches have remained stable in the four to six week range, although some suppliers experienced sporadic shortage situations last year.
NKK reported extended lead times ofmore than 10weeks last
year for its programmable line,which incorporates an IC chip, LCD and LEDs. Toyama said lead times for those componentswere three to sixmonths,which required NKK to order partswell in advance.
"We had some issues with this particular product because
demand wasmuch greater than we anticipated. Lead times for programmable lines stretched tomore than ten weeks but it's coming back to six weeks," said Toyama.
Shortages in the switchmarket weremore short-termsituations
andmore of a "spot peak in demand" that was worked through in a fewmonths, agreed Chandler.
However, it's a different situation for electromechanical relays.
"There were absolutely shortages for relays. The overall electromechanical relaymarketplace could notmeet global demands. Demand has continued to burden us for the past 12 to 15months," Chandler said.
"The levels of inventory coming out of this business recession
were significantly lower than it's ever been. Everything had pretty well been gutted so the supply chain needed to be filled up, on top of satisfying themarket demands," said Chandler.
Demand for electromechanical relays is exceeding our
capacities, said Chandler. "We have specific customers and partners that we are supporting.We are looking at between 20 to 24 weeks formanufacturing lead times with some products exceeding 40 weeks."
p18
www.electronics-sourcing.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52