TrendForce Jibang Consulting: Japan's three major MLCC manufacturers shipped in June and the spillover of consumer-grade orders continued to expand at record high levels

The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to TrendForce Jibang Consulting's latest MLCC industry survey, thanks to strong AI demand, shipments from three major Japanese and Korean manufacturers, including Murata (Murata), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO, Samsung Electric), and Taiyo Yuden (Taiyo Yuden) in June 2026, simultaneously hit new single-month highs in the past five years; their consumer-grade orders continued to spill over, benefiting the rise in prices from other manufacturers and channels.

In terms of terminal consumer electronics, Apple (AAPL.US) previously raised MacBook and iPad prices, once again showing that the brand reflected the cost pressure on the future market ahead of time. The effects of the traditional peak season in the third quarter are unlikely to be fully evident, and demand for consumer-grade MLCCs remained moderate.

Looking at AI applications, the demand for high-capacity, low-voltage, and small-sized MLCCs has not decreased due to the undiminished momentum of ASIC platforms developed by cloud service providers such as Google (GOOGL.US) TPU and AWS (Amazon Cloud Technology) Trainium, which has become a bright spot in market growth, driving the shipping performance of major Japanese and Korean manufacturers in June. According to a TrendForce Jibang Consulting survey, Murata shipped 140 billion units in a single month, SEMCO reached 98 billion units, and Taiyo Yuden reached 40 billion units. The growth trend continued until July.

As Japanese and South Korean factories accelerate the shift of consumer-grade X5R production capacity to high-end X6S/X7R specifications for AI, the production capacity of consumer-grade medium- and high-capacity MLCC (1uF to 22uF) has been squeezed, and the inventory level of mainstream materials has generally fallen below 30 days. Under this crowding out effect, urgent orders from channels, agents, and Tier 2/3 customers emerged, order spillover effects continued to expand, visibility of orders from other manufacturers improved markedly, and prices rose simultaneously. In addition, agents that have already prepared goods in advance seized the opportunity to raise product prices, with an average increase of 20-25%. The spot market raised prices to two to three times the original price. The overall consumer-grade MLCC market showed a structural pattern of “weak terminal demand and strong channel prices.”