Shipments of 1,359 billion units from January to April decreased by 34% year-on-year, and capacity reduction of MLCC suppliers may become a short-term norm

According to TrendForce statistics, the total shipments of MLCC suppliers from January to April this year were 1,359 billion units, a 34% decrease compared to the same period in 2021, showing that global economic problems have a greater impact on the MLCC industry.

Since the second quarter, due to fluctuations in the demand for orders from brands and ODMs, coupled with constant pressure to cut prices, MLCC suppliers have continued to control production capacity reduction in order to maintain the balance between supply, inventory, and prices. In May, the average production capacity utilization rate of Japanese factories was 78%; that of Chinese factories, Taiwanese factories, and Korean factories was about 60-63%. With the continued sluggish end consumer demand, it may become a short-term normal for suppliers to reduce production and load.

From the perspective of the main market for MLCC demand, in terms of mobile phones, the new phones launched by Huawei, Honor, and OPPO in the second quarter cannot effectively boost market consumption, leading brand manufacturers to be more conservative in their new product sales plans. In terms of servers, it is currently estimated that this year’s overall machine shipments will decrease by 2.85% annually, and there may be a possibility of downward revision in the future. ODM material inventory depletion will be affected. As of the end of April, the average inventory of Inventec, Quanta, and Wiwynn was still Up to 4~8 weeks.

In the PC and notebook market, due to the three-year replacement season since the epidemic, ODMs have begun to mass-produce and ship Intel’s 13th-generation Raptor Lake CPU new platform since March, regardless of consumer or business models. Quanta and Compal, the top two ODM foundries announced their shipment figures in April, which were only 3.3 million units and 2.4 million units respectively, which were even close to the same period last year. The impact of the epidemic, supply chain disruption, and finished product shipment logistics stuck. Next, the figures of 3.2 million and 2.2 million units were handed over. In contrast, today’s performance shows that the current sluggish demand in the end consumer market, coupled with the uncertain economic outlook, makes OEMs conservative in their sales forecasts for new product launches.