The year 2024 looks to be a critical year for understanding the current status of the electronic component supply chain, which itself is a bellwether for global trade and economies.
Last year, electronics parts availability and sales could be best characterized as uneven. The year was buoyed by strong Q3, but a weak Q4 undid optimistic projections that the industry would end the year with growth. Now, in Q1 2024, ECIA is predicting potentially the biggest quarter in almost four years.
Will distributors finally be able to stabilize their inventories? Will parts manufacturers continue to see the strong performance of direct sales as they did for large parts of last year?
Some of the factors that contributed to previous years' underperformance are still there, or potentially worse. Military activities. High political tensions. Labor shortages and skills gaps. But other factors have dissipated, or solutions to them have evolved. Namely domestic chip manufacturing. Cooling inflation. And the growth of many types of automation.
This year will be a very telling year for the electronics industry.
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