PCB prices jump ~40% month‑on‑month
- Reuters reported April 27 that printed circuit board prices jumped as much as 40% in April, after Iran’s strike disrupted Saudi resin output. - Goldman Sachs said the month-on-month spike hit as SABIC’s Jubail shutdown tightened high-purity PPE resin, while epoxy lead times stretched to 15 weeks. - The squeeze lands as AI-server demand was already lifting PCB prices and forcing suppliers into talks with customers. (reuters.com)
Printed circuit board prices rose as much as 40% in April after the Iran war disrupted supplies of key materials used to make them. (reuters.com) Reuters reported on April 27 that Iran’s strike on Saudi Arabia’s Jubail petrochemical complex halted production of high-purity polyphenylene ether resin, a base material used in PCB laminates. SABIC, which Reuters said accounts for about 70% of global high-purity PPE supply, has not resumed output. (reuters.com) Goldman Sachs said PCB prices in April were up as much as 40% from March. Reuters also reported that lead times for chemicals including epoxy resin stretched to 15 weeks from three weeks previously. (reuters.com) A printed circuit board is the layered platform that connects chips, memory and power parts inside devices from phones to artificial-intelligence servers. When laminate resin, copper foil or glass fiber gets scarce, board makers cannot easily swap inputs without slowing production. (reuters.com) The jump did not start from a calm market. Reuters said PCB prices had already been climbing since late 2025 as demand for AI servers increased, and Prismark projected the global PCB industry would grow 12.5% to $95.8 billion in 2026. (reuters.com) Daeduck Electronics, a South Korean board maker whose customers include Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Advanced Micro Devices, has started talking with customers about price increases, according to a senior executive who spoke to Reuters. (reuters.com) (indianexpress.com) Reuters also reported shortages in copper foil and glass fiber alongside the resin disruption. Those materials sit upstream of finished electronics, so cost increases can move into servers, computers and industrial equipment before consumers see the board itself. (reuters.com) Cloud service providers are still accepting higher prices because they expect demand to outstrip supply for years, Goldman Sachs told Reuters. That leaves electronics buyers trying to lock in parts in a market where supplier access now matters as much as price. (reuters.com)
