Inductors
ExpEct highEr tagS for inductorS
Risingmaterials costs, particularly for copper,will drive inductor prices up in 2011 By Gina Roos
Gowanda's ER10Mand ER17S inductors meetMIL-PRF-39010 specifications to failure rate LevelM
Passive component manufacturers agree that risingmaterials costs, particularly for copper that is used heavily in inductor
windings, is the biggest challenge in 2011. "Rawmaterials costs will be the biggest challenge this year by
far," said David Valletta, executive vice president, worldwide sales, Vishay Intertechnology Inc.,Malvern, Pa.
"We've seen an increase in copper pricing by about 30 percent.
Even in the past sixmonths, it's gone up quite a bit fromthe average we were paying earlier last year," said Valletta.
Dennis Kohlhagen, director of sales, at Gowanda Electronics,
Gowanda, N.Y., agreed. The costs for rawmaterials including copper and precious
metals -- silver, gold and palladium-- are the biggest challenge this year, he said. And as a
U.S.manufacturer, Gowanda also faces problems with the devaluation of the dollar, he added.
Suppliers also agree that there is no question that there will be
price hikes this year. By howmuch prices will rise is still a bit cloudy. "We anticipate having to raise prices in 2011," said Valletta. "A lot of it depends on the particular part -- howmuch metal it has and howmany windings."
Gowanda has held off fromincreasing its prices but "anticipates
increasing themby five percent by the end of the second quarter, based on economics, transportation costs and rawmaterials costs,” Kohlhagen said.
To helpmitigate costs, Gowanda is continually trying to
automate its processes and it offers inventorymanagement programs to its customers. Buyers could also help by having long-
36 | April 2011
termsolid forecasts, said Kohlhagen. "Since the downturn, buyers only purchase what they need so they are paying a higher price whereas if they could have a long-termsolid forecast they could buy higher quantities and cut costs that way."
"Butmost buyers today only buy what they need for amonth
out. They don't want to get stuck like they did before the downturn with loads of inventories," Kohlhagen added.
Shortages ease
In addition to dealing with risingmaterials costs, suppliers and buyers also have faced shortages in 2010 particularly for power inductors. Suppliers say the shortages are easing, although there are still some products with long lead times of 20+ weeks.
Valletta says there were shortages of inductors, particularly for
its high power IHLP series devices, through most of last year. These products only started to come off allocation in late December/early January, said Valletta. "It was definitely a tight supply situation."
To ease the shortage,
Vishay has added some production capacity over the past year but there are still some products with lead times of 20+ weeks. On average, lead times for
Vishay Intertechnology's IHLP inductors are available in ultra-low profiles of 1.2mmand 1.5mmin the 1212 case size
www.electronics-sourcing.com
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