Prices going through the roof?

[jitter]

Since several weeks, the company I work for is being confronted with huge price increases of components, especially those manufactured by TI (including those brands that TI owns).
We're talking about 25% or more.

We're also being confronted by suppliers unwilling to give new pricings depsite our need to have them to give quotations to our customers.

We find that agreements on prices with our suppliers are no longer set in stone. E.g. an FPGA that we had negotiated to buy for € 16 for will now cost € 23. We just can't get them for the negotiated price. The suppliers use a take it or leave it approach.

Something is going on and I was wondering if others out here in the business are noticing the same...

[PChi]

I believe that the Euro isn't doing well against the dollar. TI are likely to be basing pricing on the dollar and with Quatantive Easing (printing money) of the Euro it isn't likely to improve.

[jitter]

Thanks for the replies.

The value of the dollar has been responsible for a gradual increase over a much longer period, now we're seeing remarkable jumps, especially with TI components.
We have several suppliers, but the price rises have risen with all of them.

The sentiment I hear voiced is that TI has bought a lot of companies and has become so big that it can more or less set prices, and has started doing so.

If this trend holds, I guess we'll know within a couple of months...

[mtdoc]

The US dollar has appreciated about 25% relative to the Euro over just the past 6 months.

[fivefish]

TI is discontinuing by next year a lot of chips (previously made by National, which TI bought just recently). Yep, prices going up, and a bit of panic buying going on right now.... like people buying bread and milk knowing a snowstorm is coming. 

I'm stockpiling these chips at the moment for my own inventory, and I assume next year prices will go even higher.

[Gribo]

TI recently hiked the price of their tools by ~15% in USD terms. Meh, there are still some alternatives out there.

[tooki]

In many countries, there are laws expressly prohibiting a company from telling you you cannot sell their product. It's the first sale doctrine (I think). Once you buy an item, it's yours to do with as you please, period.

[AlxDroidDev]

TI is discontinuing by next year a lot of chips (previously made by National, which TI bought just recently). Yep, prices going up, and a bit of panic buying going on right now.... like people buying bread and milk knowing a snowstorm is coming. 

I'm stockpiling these chips at the moment for my own inventory, and I assume next year prices will go even higher.

Is there a list of these chips anywhere?

[ataradov]

In many countries, there are laws expressly prohibiting a company from telling you you cannot sell their product. It's the first sale doctrine (I think). Once you buy an item, it's yours to do with as you please, period.

Yep. But they also reserve the right not to sell them to in a first place. So sell all your current stock all you want, but you simply won't get new parts or won't get them at a good price.

[ataradov]

Is there a list of these chips anywhere?

Sure
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/tins-eol-of-old-process-is-due!-ltb-now!/msg792388/#msg792388

I believe there was another topic about this with more comments, but that's the one returned by search.

[EEVblog]

The USD has been the strongest performing currency in the world over the last year, so most countries local currencies are getting hammered against it.

[FireFlower]

I have only seen prices going down thanks to oil barrel prices being low. I still wonder when I can fill my car's gas tank with 1€/1l.

[Bud]

Altera actually published an announcement on suppressing IC black market brokers, which is making me rage. They explicitly prohibit their customers from selling left overs to IC brokers to protect their distributors' interest. F**k them! On eBay or Taobao, a brand new, 100% authentic FPGA costs 1/5 the price from Digikey. That's what they are protecting? Preventing entrepreneurs from using their chips?

I am just wondering if your projects goes live and attracts interest so you decide to make a big production run - would you still source the FPGAs from Taobao ? I'd think as an entrepreneur (not hobbyist) one should think about a reliable sourcing process. As to me if a part is not on Digikey or Element14, it is excluded from the design and I look for a replacement part which is.

[coppice]

When we put the roof on our new house a few months ago it was the price of the roof itself that shocked me.

[Galenbo]

I have only seen prices going down thanks to oil barrel prices being low. I still wonder when I can fill my car's gas tank with 1€/1l.

I'm happy too, in the short term, but if you see the number of companies that close due to such a low price, and how much the goverment looses when prices are low, you can expect less income and higher taxes elsewhere.