Capacitors are one of the basic components widely used in electronic equipment. According to the Research Report of the industry consulting agency, the output value of the global passive component industry in 2013 is about 21.7 billion US dollars, of which 66% is capacitor products, and the output value is about 14.4 billion US dollars. From the perspective of product categories, ceramic capacitors, aluminum electrolytic capacitors, solid-state capacitors, tantalum capacitors, film capacitors and power electronic capacitors are more common in the market at present. Among them, MLCC chip multilayer ceramic capacitors (commonly referred to as chip capacitors) account for 62% of the total capacitor market. With the large-scale development of 4G communication network construction in China and the gradual recovery of new energy industry, most capacitor manufacturers expect that the capacitor market will grow by about 10% in 2014, and the speed of product upgrading will also be accelerated.
Intelligent terminal becomes an important driving force
In recent years, the mobile terminal market represented by smart phones and tablet computers has become extremely popular, which has stimulated the overall demand for MLCC capacitors, especially micro products. The advantages of MLCC are high production efficiency, high safety, small size, high specific capacity, low ESR (equivalent series resistance) and low ESL (equivalent series inductance).
As one of the leading manufacturers of MLCC industry, Murata continues to maintain the first position in the world in terms of capacity development. Its production plants are located in Wuxi, Singapore, Philippines, Japan and other places in China. According to reports, the company's MLCC capacity has increased year by year, especially the growth of miniaturized high-capacity products. According to Murata's observation on the MLCC product market, 1.0 × 0.5mm (0402 inch) and 0.6 × 0.3mm (0201 inch) products will still be the mainstream of the market; the demand for 0.4 × 0.2mm (01005 inch) MLCC products is bullish in recent years; and from 2015, the new generation of 0.2 × 0.1mm (008004 inch) products will also be commercialized. The head of Murata (China) Investment Co., Ltd. said that with the rapid development of China's 4G LTE market, it is expected that in addition to the main products, the demand for small size and high capacity chip capacitors for high-end LTE mobile phones will increase, and the market for capacitors will rise to a new level. Murata will be committed to the development and innovation of MLCC technology, providing customers with high value-added and diversified capacitor products. At the same time, Murata will adjust the factory capacity flexibly according to the change of market demand, and maintain the stable supply of capacitor market.