Recently, according to media reports, consumer electronics giant Intel has informed downstream customers that it will raise the price of most products from later this year.
According to senior executives of several industry companies, the products that the US chip giants are preparing to raise prices this fall include home computers and server CPUs, as well as peripheral products such as Wi Fi chips. Intel's reason for raising prices to downstream manufacturers is the surge in production and raw material costs.
The insider disclosed that the specific price increase has not been finalized yet, but it may range from several percentage points to 10% - 20% depending on the product.
Entanglement: high inflation leads to the decline of consumption capacity
After the annual inflation rate in the United States reached an astonishing 9.1% in June, it is no surprise that Intel's price increase was revealed. However, while the cost of bulk commodities, freight and human resources is rising, high inflation also makes end consumers hold their wallets tight, making pricing particularly difficult.
As we all know, since the beginning of this year, the demand for smartphones, TVs, computers and game consoles has begun to weaken, and equipment manufacturers have warned that unsold products are gradually piling up in warehouses. Earlier, Samsung Electronics had informed a series of suppliers to suspend delivery.
As a member of the industry, Intel is also facing the same environment. Acer and ASUS, the company's main OEM partners, have publicly confirmed that the industry has entered a downward period. Jason Chen, CEO of Acer, made it clear last Wednesday that his company is no longer short of chips. Some CEOs of chip suppliers even called him and asked him to purchase more chips.
Intel also explicitly warned of a slowdown in demand at its financial report held in April, but CEO pat Gelsinger and CFO Dave Zimmer also raised the idea of raising prices.
In response to media enquiries, Intel officials also said on Thursday that in the company's Q1 earnings conference call, they had raised the price of certain products to cope with inflationary pressure. Now the company has begun to inform downstream consumers of these changes.
Looking at the entire semiconductor industry, the news about price increases has not stopped in the past few months: contract manufacturing giant TSMC has informed customers that there will still be "single digit percentage" price increases in 2023; Important material suppliers shinyue chemical and sumco will also increase their prices by 20%; The wafer manufacturer ring ball wafer also confirmed that it would raise prices for chip manufacturers and customers.