MLCC Shipments Hit Five-Year High as AI Demand Shifts Capacity

Korean and Japanese MLCC makers hit record June shipments driven by AI. Capacity shifts to high-spec parts cause consumer-grade inventory drops below 30 days and spot price surges.

Woofun AI data shows that South Korean and Japanese MLCC manufacturers achieved a five-year high in monthly shipments for June, with Murata delivering 140 billion units, Samsung Electro-Mechanics 98 billion, and Taiyo Yuden 40 billion. This volume surge is primarily fueled by robust demand from AI applications, particularly cloud providers procuring self-developed ASICs like Google TPU and AWS Trainium, which require high-capacitance, low-voltage components.

Manufacturers are rapidly reallocating consumer-grade X5R capacity to higher-specification X6S and X7R products for AI use, causing medium- to high-capacitance consumer inventory levels to fall below 30 days. This structural shift has triggered a chain reaction of urgent distributor orders, benefiting Taiwanese and mainland Chinese suppliers. Consequently, distributors holding stock have increased prices by 20% to 25%, while spot market prices have risen two to three times their original levels, despite continued weakness in the broader consumer electronics sector.