Industrial-control IC prices have risen amid tight supply, according to sources at IC distributors.

A slowdown in demand for handsets, notebooks and other consumer electronics devices has led to a related IC inventory pile-up, but industrial-control ICs remain in short supply, the sources indicated.

Suppliers of industrial-control ICs have already made upward price adjustments, and may raise again their prices to reflect the persistent chip shortage, the sources said.

Answer Technology (ANStek) and fellow Taiwan-based IC distributors are expected to be among the beneficiaries of bullish industrial-control chip and other niche IC price trends, according to the sources.

ANStek, which distributes industrial-control ICs for vendors such as Analog Devices (ADI) and Xilinx, saw its gross margin climb 2.67pp on year to 15.4% in the first quarter of 2022 despite flat revenue growth.

ANStek indicated the supply of industrial-control ICs has already fallen short of demand boosting the chip prices. A rising US dollar is another factor behind ANStek’s gross margin growth in the first quarter of this year, said the company.

Chip demand for remote technologies and industrial AIoT device applications has bee robust, though growing economic uncertainty is undermining demand for consumer and mass-market device applications, ANStek indicated.

By NewsExplorer