Recently, MLCC manufacturers have announced their second-quarter revenues, including those with revenues hitting record highs. Local exports have been boosted by the simultaneous increase in the price and shipments of capacitors and resistors, customs was also surprised by the surge in exports. However, although these passive component manufacturers have good performance, in the past few days, the share prices of major MLCC producers have experienced a collective decline. According to industry insiders, the shortage of up to one year may be Near the end.
Currently, companies including Yageo, Walsin, and Holy Stone are not required to worry about no orders at this stage as long as new capacity is available. Taking Walsin as an example, the second quarter revenue exceeded NT$11 billion, a record high. Due to the current MLCC market conditions, Walsin's board of directors increased its capital to expand MLCC.
Holy Stone focuses on niche-type high-pressure MLCCs such as vehicles, industrial controls, and chargers. In good market conditions and strategic adjustments, MLCC revenue in the second quarter has exceeded 50%, and gross margin has increased from 30% to 38.9%. Although Holy Stone's MLCC capacity is much lower than that of Yageo and Walsin, it is still actively expanding its production capacity. With the import of MLCC production equipment in place, production capacity will increase by 15% in the third quarter, which will be positive for both revenue and gross profit margin.
MLCC leading factory Murata's second quarter revenue growth of 25.7%, mainly high-performance smart phones, electric vehicles, 5G network equipment to drive MLCC sales. In the second quarter of Murata, sales of capacitors such as MLCC increased by 31.3% year-on-year, and sales of inductors, connectors, and sensors increased by 71.6%. As for the price increase of MLCC, Murata said that they are negotiating with customers.
In the second quarter of TDK, the sales of MLCCs for beneficiary vehicles increased, the combined revenue increased by 18.5%, and the operating profit increased by 53.1%, including MLCC, induction components, aluminum electrolytic capacitors and film capacitors. The battery-based energy application products business has also grown substantially. It can be seen that the demand for passive components in the automotive electronics and electric vehicles markets is rapidly expanding. However, TDK also said that the current market outlook is unclear and the trade friction between China and the United States makes them afraid to be too optimistic about future performance.
Despite the good performance of the passive components in the first half of 2018, in the second half of the year and 2019, 2020, is the market demand for passive components such as MLCC continuing to be strong? MLCC production equipment seems to have early signs of arrival, allowing manufacturers to expand production earlier than expected, in the case of a substantial increase in supply, may cause the price increase trend to come to an abrupt end.
Due to the current chaos in the market, including the supply chain of MLCC, aluminum electrolytic capacitors, solid capacitors, chip resistors and ceramic substrates, aluminum foil and other products, it is difficult to see the future prospects, but as far as the current situation is concerned, the MLCC shortage
is very likely an early closure.
