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Distributor of components in a new role
Featured Industry Insights

Distributor of components in a new role

Just a few years ago, the role of an electronic components distributor seemed relatively defined: provide a wide range, competitive prices, and efficient delivery. However, the experiences of 2020–2026 showed that such a model was no longer sufficient. When supply chains were disrupted by the pandemic, logistical bottlenecks, geopolitical tensions, and sharp spikes in demand

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Every supplier forecast needs an expiry date
Featured Sourcing Strategies

Every supplier forecast needs an expiry date

Procurement teams share forecasts to help suppliers plan capacity, components, and inventory. The intention is sensible: earlier visibility should reduce surprises later. The problem begins when a forecast outlives the assumptions that created it. A spreadsheet sent in January can still influence purchasing, production, and allocation decisions in April, even after the buyer has revised

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The new case for fab independence in a multi-crisis world
Featured Supply Chain Management

The new case for fab independence in a multi-crisis world

The announcement of Elon Musk’s plans for a new, multi-billion-dollar TeraFab complex came 99 years after Henry Ford’s massive River Rouge motor plant started churning out cars. Whereas Ford first pioneered vertical integration and took it to its logical extremes – he built an onsite power plant, steel mill, and glass factory, as well as

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European market shows steady gains, but fragile foundation
Featured Industry Insights Market Analysis

European market shows steady gains, but fragile foundation

The European electronic components market returned to solid growth in Q1, reaching €4.63 billion (+16.9%), with broad but uneven momentum across the region. Core industrial economies such as Germany (+18.5%), Italy (+18.8%), the Nordics (+19.8%), Austria (+22.4%), and Benelux (+21.0%) delivered strong double-digit gains, while Ireland (+4.6%) and parts of Southern Europe expanded more cautiously. The

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The economics of a modern fabless semiconductor company
Featured Industry Insights

The economics of a modern fabless semiconductor company

A fabless semiconductor company focuses on designing and developing integrated circuits while outsourcing fabrication to specialised foundries, which allows it to concentrate on architecture and system-level innovation. This model is central to modern chip ecosystems because it enables faster iteration cycles and close coordination with manufacturing and packaging partners. Competitiveness stems from economic efficiency rather

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Memory in crisis: what the 2026 shortage means
Featured Industry Insights Sourcing Strategies

Memory in crisis: what the 2026 shortage means

The electronics industry is in the grip of a memory shortage – and this one is different. Unlike the supply shocks of the COVID-19 era, today’s crunch is being driven by a fundamental shift in who consumes memory and how much they need. Experts who joined a recent Procurement Pro webinar – Claudio Chan, Director

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Featured Supply Chain Management

The Strait of Hormuz crisis

Disruption in and around the Strait of Hormuz continues to evolve, with conditions shifting day by day. Periods of de-escalation have offered some relief, but recovery remains fragile and uncertainty persists. Insurance costs remain volatile, and security risks, including the potential presence of unexploded mines, continue to pose challenges even when transit resumes. For procurement

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How a single fab’s power outage can impact global electronics production
Featured Supply Chain Management

How one fab’s outage can impact global electronics production

Global electronics production relies on a tightly synchronised network of semiconductor fabrication plants, where a single power outage can disrupt output in real time. The industry operates with minimal inventory buffers and depends heavily on a limited number of high-capacity fabs to sustain continuous supply. When one facility experiences downtime, the impact spreads rapidly, creating

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Why are semiconductor companies struggling to scale AI?
Digitalisation Featured

Why are semiconductor companies struggling to scale AI?

HTEC’s latest State of AI in the Semiconductor Industry 2025-2026 report reveals a growing gap between AI ambition and execution in the semiconductor sector. Almost all surveyed semiconductor organisations are pursuing AI, but fewer than half have embedded it across multiple functions. Most deployments remain concentrated in specific use cases or pilot programmes rather than

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Drastic RAMifications: weathering the memory shortage
Featured Industry Insights Market Analysis

Drastic RAMifications: weathering the memory shortage

In recent days, the headlines of most technology titles have been dominated by the perfect storm that has led to a global shortage of Random Access Memory (RAM). As the short-term, temporary memory that handles data for processing and applications, RAM – and specifically Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) – is a foundational business technology.

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