Taiwan's DVD-ROM drive manufacturers are reporting a lead time on DVD pick-up heads of two-and-a-half to three months, and current inventory is only enough for about 80% of planned shipments.
The shortage of pick-up heads may not be relieved until the first quarter of 2002. Not only is there a limited supply of pick-up heads, but some chipsets have also been difficult to procure.
Sanyo and Sony still claim they are shipping a steady supply of pick-up heads, but most other suppliers cannot fulfill all incoming orders in the lead time requested. Sony has not yet attained a decent production yield for its pick-up head paired with Matsushita's chipset, and as a result, companies that are using this complete solution have had to delay shipments. Those using Mediatek's complete DVD chipset solution cannot complete orders due to a lack of Hitachi pick-up heads. |
Except for a 5-10% rise when the shortage was first detected in October, the unit price for a DVD pick-up head has lingered between US$10 and US$11 through November. Unit prices are not likely to rise much higher, as most manufacturers have opted for complete solutions instead of procuring individual components themselves.
Source: Digitimes.com
