COVID-19 Impacts on Component Pricing and Lead Time

As COVID-19 impacts develop, the ability to understand and analyze the available data has become more and more crucial to many industries. Every minute, new data is released all around the world, growing in volume, variety, veracity, and velocity.

Data analytics professionals standardize, organize, and synthesize massive amounts of information to find insights, identify relevant patterns, tell a story, and make informed predictions. In these uncertain times, not only can the tool evaluate the effectiveness of public health strategies and tactics, but data analytics can also be used to monitor the Coronavirus outbreak and supply chain impact. In this analysis, we are going to answer questions related to component pricing and lead time, and discover critical trends in today’s industry.

The SiliconExpert analytics team did a study on component pricing and lead time before and after the epidemic. This study is based on Millions of Electronic Components Resides in SiliconExpert’s database. The team made a comparison analysis for the period starting from January 2020 to March 2020. Here are the key findings:

Part I: Component Pricing Analysis

The chart below represents component distribution per price changes. It shows:

• 55.13 % of the parts have no change in their pricing data.
• 24.53% of the parts have a decrease in their pricing data.
• 5.93 % of the parts have an increase in their pricing data by < 5 %
• 14.41 % of the parts have an increase in their pricing data by > 5 %

So, the question now did prices normally fluctuate that much over a similar period historically and this is normal? The answer will be YES. Let us see what was happening in the same period in 2019. The below chart will illustrate more:

Although the percentage of the parts has an increase in their pricing data seems high (14.41%) but compared to the same period last year, that increase seems normal considering these factors:

• In the same period last year, the percentage was 8.4% of parts that have an increase in their pricing data. 
• YOY component price is normally having an increase.

Example: Pricing change per batteries and power supplies:

Categories that have seen an increase in their component pricing are batteries and power supplies. Although the increased percentage may seem high at 24.4, it does not cause any concern, especially when drilling down to the detailed levels, SiliconExpert found that all affected parts have an increase of less than 10% than their normal values.

This is a great example of the fact that the global economy is gripped by rare twin supply-demand shock.

Fore more examples and categories, find them in the below stacked chart: 

Part II: Lead Time Analysis

On the other hand, our analysis also includes the impact of COVID-19 on component lead time using the same concept of pricing data analysis.

Example: Displays category lead time changes.

• 12.5% of the parts have an increase in their lead time data by >5%
• 35% of the displays’ parts have an increase in their lead time data, but around only 6.5 % of the parts have > 50 % increase in their lead time.

The top categories with large change on a lead time are:

More examples and categories:

Conclusion

From this analysis, SiliconExpert has found critical and immediate insights into the electronic component industry. Despite the exponential impact of COVID-19 around the world, the analysis shows a major jump in positive indicators regarding the impact on the ability of companies to supply customers on time. There is a large shift toward “no impact” and “minimal impact” throughout the SiliconExpert’s investigation.

Check out the below datasheet to learn more about SiliconExpert Business-Intelligence-as-a-Service

April 30, 2020, by Ali Ashraf