Prices hikes are inbound for laptops, PC components, and pretty much all electronics besides, and you can blame the rising cost of precious metals.
Tom’s Hardware picked up on a report from DigiTimes which observes that Chinese semiconductor manufacturers have notified the firms they supply that their prices are going up by 10% to 20% across the board, and this is happening immediately.
Why? Due to increases in the price of metals such as gold and copper used in these products. As Tom’s points out, in the case of copper, back in 2020 this was priced at $5,000 per metric ton, but today manufacturers are paying $8,300, a 66% increase over four years.
The report cites Yaxin Microelectronics, a circuit design and packaging outfit, as well as some other firms, none of which are commonly known names. Mainly because these are the behind-the-scenes suppliers of the core bits and pieces hardware makers purchase.
With these prices going up, laptop makers, graphics card manufacturers, and indeed all PC component producers will be paying more to make their goods, and naturally that cost will be passed on to consumers.
Analysis: Doom and gloom?
We can add the usual salt around this report, but the increasing cost of precious metals is obviously something that’s clearly demonstrable. Gold hasn’t seen quite such a steep rise as copper, but it’s still up around 50% compared to the low in pricing witnessed in 2020, and this year has ushered in a considerable spike upwards.
It’s the extent of the price hikes that could be ushered in here which is worrying, too. This isn’t just about the gamut of PC components, and the best laptops, tablets, smartphones, but other consumer electronics too. As Tom’s notes, anything which uses chips will be getting a bit pricier – and that’s a lot of household goods and gadgets these days.
Exactly how much pricier is the question, then, but that will obviously vary widely depending on what piece of consumer electronics we’re talking about. Pricier desktop PCs and laptops is clearly a fair bet, though, as these devices obviously use a number of different chips and boards across their array of components.
Unfortunately, the report also notes that the semiconductor outfits currently pushing up pricing are telling us to expect further cost increases in the future. All in all, then, it’s not the best news to end the week on – but we shouldn’t go into full doom and gloom mode yet.
We can still hope any damage to the wallets of consumers is relatively limited, and that the suppliers in question are looking more on the negative side and priming manufacturers to expect the worst, when that may not happen. Of course, whichever way you dice it, electronics in general are getting pricier going forward.
