Price increases are on the horizon for laptops, PC components and virtually all electronics besides, and you can blame the rising costs of precious metals.
Tom’s hardware picked up based on a report from DigiTimes noting that Chinese semiconductor makers have informed the companies they supply that their prices will increase by 10% to 20% across the board, and this is happening immediately.
Why? Due to price increases of metals such as gold and copper used in these products. As Tom notes, in the case of copper this cost $5,000 per tonne in 2020, but today manufacturers are paying $8,300, an increase of 66% over four years.
The report cites Yaxin Microelectronics, a company that designs and packages circuits, as well as several other companies, none of which are widely known names. Especially since these are the behind-the-scenes suppliers of the core components that hardware makers buy.
As these prices rise, laptop makers, graphics card makers, and even all PC component makers will pay more to make their products, and of course those costs will be passed on to consumers.
Analysis: doom and gloom?
We can add the usual salt around this report, but the rising cost of precious metals is clearly evident. Gold hasn’t yet seen as steep a rise as copper, but it’s still up about 50% from 2020’s low price levels, and has ushered in significant upside this year.
It is also the magnitude of the price increases that could be ushered in here that is also worrying. This is not only about the range of PC components and the best laptops, tablets, smartphones, but also about other consumer electronics. As Tom notes, anything that uses chips is going to be a little more expensive – and that includes many household items and gadgets these days.
Exactly how much more expensive is the question, but that will of course vary greatly depending on which piece of consumer electronics we are talking about. However, more expensive desktop PCs and laptops are clearly a good choice, as these devices clearly use a number of different chips and boards in their range of components.
Unfortunately, the report also notes that the semiconductor manufacturers currently driving up prices are telling us that we can expect further cost increases in the future. All in all, this isn’t the best news to end the week with – but we shouldn’t go into full doom and gloom mode just yet.
We can still hope that there will be some damage to consumers’ wallets relatively is limited, and that the suppliers in question are looking more on the negative side and preparing manufacturers to expect the worst when it may not happen. No matter how you look at it, electronics in general will obviously become increasingly expensive in the future.
