We have already written about the difficult situation in the industry of the production of electronic components for a number of reasons. Here we have natural disasters, problems with logistics, and trade wars - all together. Well, since there are no components, then the release of any electronic goods for the production of which scarce chips are needed is under threat.
In the near future, experts predict problems with the production of printers - all because they also need RAM chips. There are even very gloomy forecasts regarding a complete stop of the production of printers. This, of course, is unlikely, but the industry has significant problems.
Why printers will be in short supply?
Yes, simply because many companies are switching to telecommuting. Despite digitalization, electronic document management and other clever terms, no one canceled printing on paper. Often, both realities - electronic and “paper” exist in parallel, because someone needs paper copies of electronic documents.
In general, printer sales are increasing, but vendors will soon be unable to keep up with demand. And not so much because of the increase in the number of orders, but because of the lack of electronic components ...
According to one of the sources of the Nikkei Asian Review, if the production of chips does not grow, then vendors will no longer be able to supply the required volumes of printers to the market.
Well, the production of chips is not going to grow
On the contrary, production volumes are now lower than usual, but prices are higher. And even after all Chinese factories have resumed their work after the Chinese New Year, the cost of memory chips continues to rise.
Chip manufacturers, of course, do not feel any crisis - they work as usual, but they receive more and more money for the same volume of manufactured products. Not only DDR4 chips are getting more expensive , but also DDR3 and even DDR2.
The most active rise in price are "niche" memory chips that are used in specific devices or have a small amount of memory. For example, DDR3 with a volume of 4 GB immediately went up by 8.93%.
The cost of quite modern chips has also increased, including 8 GB DDR4 memory modules, but by only 4%. 4GB DDR4 RAM costs 6.6% more. The price of 1 GB DDR2 (yes, they are still in production) has risen at a record - by 10.1% in just a month.
Since the market demand for laptops, servers, desktops, etc. is constantly increasing, then the shortage of electronic components required for the production of such systems is also growing. Moreover, the market for memory chips is also affected by the very rapid recovery of the auto industry, which now also needs electronic components, because cars are getting smarter. Machines require a wide variety of electronic systems.
Now the situation is not catastrophic, but only due to the fact that contracts for the supply of electronic components between chip suppliers and manufacturers of electronic equipment are still in force. Most of the contracts have a fixed price and fixed batch quantities of chips. But the term of some contracts is coming to an end, and chip suppliers are in no hurry to renew them, because it is profitable for them to sell their goods at the maximum price. Therefore, someone is waiting, someone says that there is no required amount of chips.
Equipment manufacturers are forced to enter the spot market, where relatively small consignments of goods are sold at new prices. And the cost of a product here very much depends on demand: the higher it is, the higher the price, respectively. The emergence of new participants who need large consignments of goods provokes a constant increase in the cost of chips.
Manufacturers complicate everything
The fact is that at the beginning of the year, many chip manufacturers began to change the profile of their products - many are switching to the production of the most expensive chips. As a rule, these are specialized chips. Or simply outdated DDR2 and DDR3 chips of small size, which are used everywhere in energy, IoT and other industries.
For a month, the cost of DDR4 chips increased by 7% at once, and DDR2 by 10%. As for SSDs, their price by the end of the second quarter of 2021 increased by 5%, this is the corporate sector. Custom SSDs are up 8% more expensive.
How fast is the production of printers growing?
According to IDC Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker, in the fourth quarter of last year alone, global supplies of printers increased by 5.6%. In total, about 27 million devices were sold in the quarter. Mainly, supplies of relatively simple user devices are growing - sophisticated corporate office equipment is not so popular as office staff move to remote locations.
In general, all this will lead not only to a shortage of printers, but also to their rise in price. The situation may improve, but not right now. According to experts, positive changes can be expected until June this year.
