There is a serious shortage of capacitors. Is the price of lighting equipment going up?

The shortage of capacitors widely used in drives, electronic ballasts and lighting control worldwide is increasing the price pressure on lighting equipment.

It is expected that components in 2018, especially capacitors, will be in serious shortage, which will increase the pressure on the price of lighting equipment (especially drives and ballasts).

This is Jacques, vice president of components for Future Electronics, a major supplier to the lighting industry. Jacques Hing's warning this week. He warned his clients: "The shortages may last for many years, which brings huge uncertainty to the market."

Capacitors are widely used in drivers, electronic ballasts, and lighting control. “Today, the electronics industry is facing a serious and unprecedented shortage of capacitors, resistors and power inductors. According to our chartered suppliers, these shortages may last for many years, which brings huge uncertainty to the market.”

“Our industry history has rarely seen this unprecedented and serious supply and demand gap, mainly driven by the growth of the automotive industry, smartphones, wireless network infrastructure and the Internet of Things,” he said.

“As the market demand far exceeds current manufacturing capacity levels, many capacitor manufacturers have extended the product lead time by nearly 18 months.” “In these challenging market environments, we see that due to manufacturers Difficult to meet the demand, the factory has a large number of orders canceled."

“Our suppliers have raised prices in large numbers and expect other prices to rise in the future as raw material costs continue to rise and capacitor manufacturers are trying to reduce bookings,” he said.

The rise in the price of electronic components is due to the significant increase in aluminum and other raw materials in recent months, as well as the 25% tariff on some LEDs and LED modules by US companies.

Major lighting manufacturers have passed on the increased costs to their customers. In the US, brands including Acuity, Eaton, Venture and Ledvance have announced price increases of 6% to 8% due to rising raw material costs.

In addition, the latest news, Panasonic's famous lighting accessories manufacturer Universal Lighting Technologies ("ULT") recently announced that starting from August 1, 2018, the price of products on the ULT product line will rise 6-8 %.

Global Matt designs and manufactures lighting products, including straight tube and compact fluorescent electronic ballasts, HID lighting fixtures (HID ballasts, triggers and compensation capacitors). The company said that the company has been committed to developing the most technologically advanced and economical products in the lighting market. One of the company's core tasks is to reduce costs for customers without sacrificing performance and reliability. Although the cost has been reduced, our suppliers have recently increased the cost of goods and components. Therefore, the company decided to adjust the price.