In 2018, under the background of the global shortage of MLCC, Vishay, Murata, TDK, Taiyo Yuden, Samsung, Kyocera, Yageo and other producers announced the expansion of production. These new production lines will be put into production between the end of 2019 and 2021. Among them, the expansion of Japanese and Korean manufacturers mainly focuses on high-end MLCC products for smartphones and automobiles.
Recently, Dave Valletta, executive vice president of global sales at Vishay, said: "In order to solve the global MLCC shortage, our MLCC business unit has increased production capacity. Now we are able to significantly shorten the MLCC lead time to better meet the needs of our customers around the world."
According to Vishay, the lead time of its high reliability and RF/HF MLCC, as well as industrial and automotive grade MLCC, have been shortened to less than 10 weeks.
The most obvious effect currently reflected in the market is the shortened lead times for high-end MLCC products. According to the plan, the monthly production targets of Yageo (10 billion/month) and Murata (40 billion+/month) will also be reached in the end of 2019.
In addition, the expansion plans of Fenghua (5.6 billion / month), Yageo (10 billion / month), Samsung, Taiyo, etc. will be reached next year, and the expansion of companies such as Kyocera and Taiyo Yuden will be completed in 2021. According to these data, the delivery of high-end MLCC will be further shortened in the next few years. It is worth noting that the expansion of Japanese and Korean manufacturers in 2018 is mainly for high-end MLCC, which means that the low-end and mid-range MLCCs are not affected by the expansion. However, as more high-end MLCCs enter the market, there will be new changes in the overall capacitor market in the future.
