Computer manufacturers are uncomfortable with raw material costs and begin to cut corners

The wind of price increase has been unstoppable from Apple's four bags to Apple's fourth generation. Yesterday, an insider of a large domestic PC manufacturer told this reporter that due to the substantial increase in the prices of raw materials such as memory, LCD panels and engineering plastics, the company had notified downstream customers to raise prices, and the price increase was about 3%.

Not only that, in order to combat rising costs, the large PC maker has also resorted to "strange": "Some product's chassis from 20 liters to 20 liters." The insider revealed. He also said that the increase in product costs is currently a major problem for all machine manufacturers.

The cost of unbearable costs?

For the complete machine manufacturers, although the 80% of the parts needed for their products did not increase their prices, the prices of key components such as memory, LCD screens, chassis, and power supplies rose sharply.

It is reported that the rise in the prices of raw materials such as memory, LCD panels, and engineering plastics was mainly affected by the earthquake in Japan. On the one hand, many related component manufacturers caused a sharp decrease in production capacity in 2011 due to the earthquake. On the other hand, the rigid demand for the market was better than in previous years, which also caused the supply of the phased parts to fall short of demand. Since May of this year, prices have continued to rise.

Taking the LCD panel as an example, due to the increasing number of commercial customers upgrading from 15 inches to 17-inch, 19-inch, or even larger screens, the number of cuts by the upstream manufacturers for full-screen cutting has decreased. At the same time, more and more LCD TVs have been included. Consumer electronics products and PC manufacturers also need the LCD screens of upstream manufacturers, which also leads to the situation that the glass substrates needed for manufacturing liquid crystal displays are in short supply.

"Many brands including Samsung, Philips, BenQ, and TPV are adjusting prices recently!" According to analysts from the IT industry.

The general increase in chassis and power supply prices is due to the price increase of raw materials such as steel and aluminum materials upstream. “Metal materials, plastics, and packaging materials are all increasing prices this year, and the first time in more than a decade, power supplies upstream materials have been out of stock. Taiwan’s top five power supply manufacturers Delta Electronics, Lite-On, Kang Shu, and Feihong. In May, Quanhan, etc. are gradually increasing prices.” The above industry analysts pointed out that Taiwan's notebook computer power market share of over 80%, PC, LCD TV power also accounted for more than 50%, the server's power supply close to 50%, This wave of power supply material out of stock, will affect the end of the market shipments, such as the recent hot iPad for a time due to lack of charger affected.

In addition to the soaring prices of raw materials, the dramatic increase in labor costs has also added to the problem. It is understood that with the implementation of the new labor law in China, the labor labor system has been further standardized, and the increase in plant labor costs caused by the plant is also an important reason for the rising cost of components.

According to statistics, almost all provinces in the country raised their minimum wages in 2010. In the first quarter of this year, another 13 provinces raised the minimum wage standard by an average of 20.6%. As of the end of March, the highest national monthly minimum wage standard was Shenzhen, which was 1,320 yuan.

Rising prices, reducing materials, as both costs continue to squeeze profit margins, PC manufacturers have also started "Eight Immortals, each show supernatural powers," seeking to break through the road.

The most direct is the product price increase, and further transfer of rising costs to the downstream. The insider of the aforementioned domestic large-scale PC manufacturing enterprises told this reporter that their company’s products will increase their prices by 3%. However, the person said that for long-term signed major customers, the company will also give a certain price protection, reduce the price increase, the price increase rate will be lower than the company's average price increase rate of 30%.

At the same time, "some of the product's chassis have changed from 25 liters to 20 liters, but the materials used have not changed," said the insider of the PC maker. As for whether the chassis cuts will affect the computer's operating efficiency and service life, the person thinks that it should not have too much impact on product quality.

In response, this reporter also consulted an insider who was more familiar with computer hardware yesterday. He said that the reduction of chassis capacity will have a certain impact on the cooling and ventilation of computers, and may reduce computer efficiency. "Of course, this also depends on the heat dissipation of the equipment and the rationality of the design." The person said.