Samsung Electro-Mechanics told customers it will raise MLCC prices 30%. The reason it gave was not raw materials.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics is raising prices on certain MLCC products by 30% for shipments made on or after August 1, 2026. The move came in a notice sent to customers, and it applies to every MLCC product under the pricing code the company manages as one group. Taiyo Yuden is raising MLCC prices from September 1.

MLCC price wave: after Taiyo Yuden, Samsung Electro-Mechanics raises prices 30% from August (TechNews, 2026-07-28)

출처: technews.tw

What an MLCC is, and why 30% matters

Open up a phone and you find hundreds of parts smaller than a grain of rice sitting on the board. Most of them are MLCCs. The part holds a small charge and releases it on demand, smoothing out the voltage, so that when a chip suddenly draws a burst of current the supply does not sag or spike. Equipment that draws more power needs more of them. A high-end AI server carries more than ten times the MLCC count of a smartphone. Each one is cheap, but the sheer number means a single price step lands directly in the cost of a server.

How this differs from the last increase

MLCC prices already moved once this spring. Taiyo Yuden raised prices on some products from May 1, and the reason it gave then was the rising cost of gold and silver. Samsung Electro-Mechanics, which holds roughly 23% of the global market, stayed put.

Exclusive: Japan's Taiyo Yuden raises MLCC prices, will Murata and Samsung Electro-Mechanics follow? (Dailian, 2026-04-15)

출처: dailian.co.kr

That report described an industry waiting on Murata, the market leader, to speak at its earnings call. Whatever the top maker said about pricing would set the direction for everyone else. Three months later the one that moved first was the number two, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, and the step was 30%. The reason it gave is also different from the spring. Instead of input costs, the company pointed to structural growth in electronics demand putting pressure on the supply chain beyond what it can absorb internally. If raw materials are the reason, falling input costs eventually give a company grounds to walk the price back. If demand is the reason, no such grounds exist.

Delivery dates bind before prices do

Taiyo Yuden paired its increase with a warning that it may not be able to meet the delivery schedules customers request. That is the company saying supply will fall short of demand even after the price goes up. Prices can be negotiated. Delivery dates cannot. It also means the thing keeping a server from shipping on time may not be a GPU but a component smaller than a fingernail.

So what actually settles this

It comes down to one question. Does the 30% harden into real contract prices, or does it stay a notice. If August shipments bill at the new prices and Murata joins the round of increases, pricing power has moved from the buyers of these parts to the makers of them. If customers instead delay orders or shift volume elsewhere and the increase sticks only on part of the lineup, the notice will have been a negotiating card. The heavier line is not the one about raising prices. It is the one about not being able to supply enough even at the higher price. The shortage the AI buildout created appears to have worked its way past GPUs and memory down to the cheapest layer of the bill of materials.