November 2018 Passive Electronic Component Monthly Market Research Report

Capacitor lead times continued to show OVERALL weakness in November 2018 on a month to month basis after the October correction in the market. We now see substantial weakness in the peripheral markets to MLCC, with emphasis upon tantalum capacitors, which overlap MLCC and offers the most logical alternative to MLCC. The weakness in the tantalum market in November was significant enough to impact the overall capacitor lead time index (an important correction).

Additionally there is continued weakness in the plastic film capacitor markets on a month-to-month basis while aluminum capacitors showed stagnancy. Meanwhile, MLCC continued to remain tight, with notable increases in lead times for the larger case size MLCC in November, and continued steady-state demand for high capacitance MLCC