Packaging specialists, such as Greatek Electronics, plan to raise their quotes for MCU and other consumer IC products in the second quarter to reflect their tight capacities, according to industry sources.

Greatek and fellow Taiwan-based OSAT companies have seen order visibility extended to the end of this year, said the sources, adding that book-to-bill ratios at the firms have come above 1.2. Production lead times, particularly lead times for wirebonding packaging, have been stretched to 8-12 weeks, the sources continued.

Sources at Taiwan-based MCU suppliers have disclosed orders received thus far this year already have outpaced the levels during the same period in 2020. MCU demand for TWS and other consumer electronics devices, as well as home appliances applications, has been robust, according to the sources.

However, the sources noted, foundry and backed capacity remains severely tight limiting the companies' ability to fulfill all the orders.

MCU design houses such as Holtek Semiconductor have raised their quotes by as high as 20%, and are mulling another upward price adjustments later this year due to the continued tight capacity at their production partners, the sources said.

Greatek disclosed recently plans to raise quotes to reflect its tight supply. Raising quotes is a must as materials costs have risen significantly over the past months, Boris Hsieh, CEO of the PTI group, was quoted as saying in previous reports. Greatek is a Powertech Technology (PTI) subsidiary.

Greatek reportedly will be improving manufacturing efficiency to increase output this year. The backend house already acquired an additional 800 sets of wirebonding packaging equipment in 2020.

Delivery lead times for wirebonding packaging equipment have extended to over 6-9 months, according to industry sources in Taiwan.