The main pain point: a perfect storm of costs and visibility

The number one pain point for industrial buyers in 2026 is not an outright shortage like 2021-2022. It is the unpredictable volatility across pricing, lead times, and geopolitics simultaneously, making any planning extremely difficult.

Lead times climbed steadily for 12 months before peaking with a dramatic spike in March 2026, a 67% increase in a single month between February and March, with lead times reaching 40 weeks on certain components. The market had never truly normalized after the post-Covid shortage cycle.

What makes the situation particularly toxic:

When tariffs are announced, threatened, or merely rumored, rational buyers pull purchases forward. This demand compression reduces available stock and drives spot market premiums up almost overnight. Components that were stable at book price for much of 2025 have seen spot market premiums multiply by 2 to 5 times, and even higher in some categories.

The most significant hidden pain point is not price itself. It is part identity and data mismatch: teams waste hours confirming that the reference listed in the BOM is actually the same part a supplier is quoting.

Only 18% of companies have achieved end-to-end visibility across their supply chain. For the majority, the reality looks like fragmented email threads, missed messages due to time zone differences, and the constant fear that something important has slipped through the cracks.

The hardest components to source (excluding memory)

SiC MOSFETs and IGBTs: maximum criticality

SiC MOSFETs, a key technology for electric vehicles and onboard chargers, are in a critical situation at ON Semiconductor. Demand from automotive manufacturers is outpacing available capacity. EV procurement teams must treat SiC allocation as a strategic priority through at least the first half of 2026. Lead times for AEC-Q100 qualified 32-bit MCUs have reached 52 weeks or more across several families. These parts are expected to remain difficult to source through 2028.

Industrial and automotive MCUs on mature nodes

The MCU price war ended in 2025. STMicro, TI, NXP, and Infineon announced price increases effective April 2026, with TI reaching up to 85% increases on certain part numbers. Foundries on mature nodes (40nm to 180nm) critical for industrial MCUs are sold out for all of 2026. STMicro MCU lead times had already reached 55 weeks and the situation is likely to worsen.

Analog and power management components (PMIC, op-amps, ADC/DAC)

The most acute pressure is concentrated on components manufactured on older process nodes, from 90nm to 350nm. These nodes produce analog ICs, power management chips, discretes, and interface chips that appear on virtually every industrial BOM. Precision op-amps, ADCs, DACs, and voltage references used in industrial sensors and medical equipment are seeing a return to allocation. Analog Devices applied 15% price increases across its entire catalog, and 30% on approximately 1,000 military-grade references.

GaN: emerging but already constrained

Chinese export controls on gallium and germanium, implemented in mid-2025, triggered alarm bells as China dominates these supply chains. This adds supply risk for compound semiconductor components such as GaAs and GaN devices.

High-speed connectors and specialty MLCCs

High-speed connectors and multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) are experiencing measurable tightening as hyperscale data center construction accelerates. Sourcing teams working on data center, industrial computing, or AI-edge applications should proactively build buffer stock in these categories. Murata announced increases of 15% to 35% on passives for AI servers. KEMET (Yageo) raised polymer tantalum capacitor prices by 15% to 30% in Q1 2026.

Legacy logic components and end-of-life parts

Many 74xx, CD4000, and older interface families are end-of-life or severely backordered. Tantalum capacitors, high-voltage MLCCs, and polymer aluminum capacitors critical for defense and aerospace continue to face shortages.

A special case: Nexperia

Nexperia’s wafer supply has been halted since October 2025 following export control measures, meaning there is no raw material feed for new production. The company has provided no confirmed timeline for supply resumption. For teams with Nexperia-sourced discretes, logic ICs, or transistors in their BOM, the practical response is to pursue approved alternative sourcing without delay.

Summary

Family	Tension level	Typical lead time
SiC MOSFETs	Critical	40 to 60 weeks
Auto/industrial MCUs (AEC-Q100)	Critical	40 to 55 weeks
Analog ICs / PMIC	High	30 to 40 weeks
GaN	Rising	20 to 35 weeks
High-speed connectors	Rising	20 to 30 weeks
Specialty MLCCs	Moderate	16 to 24 weeks
Legacy logic (74xx family)	Spot shortages	Variable

The strategy that sets successful teams apart is anticipating 12 to 18 months ahead, continuously auditing the BOM, qualifying second sources before they are needed, and abandoning just-in-time practices for critical part numbers.

Are some of these components on your BOM?

If you are facing allocation issues, extended lead times, or unexpected price increases on any of the components mentioned in this article, ARTRONIK can help. We specialize in sourcing hard-to-find, allocated, and end-of-life electronic components through our global network of franchised and pre-approved suppliers.

Fill in the quote request form on this page and our team will get back to you quickly with availability and pricing.