Tantalum capacitor prices stabilize

As the manufacturers now have increased their capacity along with slightly decreased demand for the tantalum capacitors the prices are now likely to fal some 1-2 percent during the first half of 2007. Buyers can expect stable and prices for tantalum capacitors for the rest of the year because suppliers have added capacity to meet rising demand. However prices should decline about 1-2% in the first half of 2007 as demand weaken. "Prices had begun firming in the first half of the year and that continued in the third quarter", says David Valletta, senior vice president of global strategic sales for Vishay Intertechnology in Malvern, Pa. According to Purchasing.com many leading tantalum capacitor suppliers are focusing their efforts on higher margin low equivalent series resistance (ESR), low equivalent series inductance (ESL) and low-profile designs to offset some of lower margin commodity products. "There is strong demand for high capacitance, low ESR and low-profile components", says Dan Lane, marketing manager, AVX Corp. in Myrtle Beach, S.C. "A lot of circuits are higher speed and the low ESR is very critical to these types of applications."