Japan Electronic Materials Output Increases by 22% in October

Japanese electronic materials output increased by 22% to 49.95 billion yen in October from a year earlier, according to Japan Electronics & Technology Industries Association. The output upped by 13% to 10.11 billion yen for permanent magnets thanks to the increasing demand and by 8% to 5.49 billion yen for metal materials even though nonferrous metal prices weakened relatively. The demand of electronic materials seemed steady in October when the users procured the materials before the year-end sales season.The output of rare earth magnets increased by 16% to 8.19 billion yen in October from a year ago among permanent magnets. The demand is increasing for automobiles and mini-size hard disc drives. The output of electric tube and leadframe materials decreased by 3% year-on-year in October among metal materials. The output value seemed to decrease when nickel price almost halved from the peak in May 2007. On the other hand, the output of other metal materials increased by 31% including soft magnet materials, spring materials, welding materials and resistant materials.The output of semiconductive ceramics increased by 3% year-on-year in October. Piezo-electric ceramics increased by 21% while dielectric ceramics increased by 41%. Soft ferrite decreased by 4% in October from a year earlier.