▶ Yageo signals possible price hikes as Japanese and Korean passive component makers raise prices

• Taiwanese passive component maker Yageo officially noted that Murata and Samsung Electro-Mechanics — the world’s #1 and #2 MLCC makers — recently issued price increase notices to customers.

• Driven by expanding AI demand, the company expects raw material cost increases and tight supply-demand conditions to be gradually met in 2H26, signaling the potential for price hikes.

• Custom high-spec products currently account for 80% of revenue, with demand for high-spec products — including ASICs — continuing to expand on the back of more sophisticated AI server platform design.

• Yageo explained that demand is rising rapidly not only in the GPU market but also in the ASIC market, and that it is strengthening its response to demand within the AI supply chain.

• The current passive component shortage is concentrated in high-spec/custom products, with lead times now extending to 12–18 weeks or more.

• Spillover orders are increasing as competitors’ production lines run at full capacity; the company explained that it has secured the ability to handle urgent orders through long-term capacity planning and proactive inventory build.

• Utilization is expected to run above 80% for standard products and above 90% for high-spec products; despite high utilization, there is room to take on additional orders by clearing bottlenecks.

• AI-related products currently account for roughly 15% of revenue, and the company assesses that the industry is in the “first half of Stage 2 of the AI revolution.”

• The current average book-to-bill (BB) ratio is 1.3, with AI products at 1.4 — higher than the industry average (1.18–1.2) and Murata (1.25) — and order momentum is expected to strengthen further in 2H.

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