SUMMARY - TOTAL TANTALUM RECEIPTS VS. PROCESSOR SHIPMENTS

摘要

A comparison of the total tantalum receipts by processors and their shipments during 2001 does not seem to indicate a shortage of tantalum materials (Figure 18). One might conclude that the processors shipped all the product they could manufacture from the available raw materials and secondary feedstocks. There is considerable evidence that the double and triple ordering in the tantalum capacitor market created the perceived shortage during 2000. That perceived shortage in the capacitor segment cascaded into the chemicals, ingot, and mill products segments when 'their share of tantalum raw materials' were perhaps allocated to the manufacturing pipeline for powder, resulting in capacitors being produced that inflated inventories.This put pressure on powder and capacitor manufacturers for increased production capacity, especially for those powder and capacitor designs requiring high capacitance powders. Expansions were completed, based on those excessive demands, but with the economy beginning to deteriorate, and excessive inventories throughout the entire pipeline, up to and including the actual cellular phones, an inventory reduction period is currently in progress.