Q3 2025 Electronic components lead time report

Welcome to the Sourceability Lead Time Report! Using real-time market data and insights from key manufacturers, Sourceability creates a quarterly analysis of global lead time trends across the active and passive electronic component markets.  

The Q3 2025 edition reveals a market defined by conditional stability. While most general-purpose components remain steady in pricing and availability, key segments tied to AI infrastructure, memory, and geopolitics are tightening. Meanwhile, U.S. semiconductor tariffs and surging logistics costs are accelerating pricing volatility across multiple categories and altering sourcing strategies in real time.  

Most notably, memory markets remain the focal point of contention, with persistent pressure on DDR4, DDR5, and HBM components. Spikes in Asia-U.S. freight costs and emerging constraints in the PCB market have also added late-quarter pressure.  

Procurement teams are now entering Q4 hedging against risks that could trigger broader shortages through the end of the year.  

Q3 2025 electronic component lead time and price takeaways

The third quarter of 2025 presented a mixed bag for electronic component buyers. While most categories of standard ICs, logic, and sensors remained steady, core segments tied to AI infrastructure, including memory, storage, and power-related passives, experienced growing constraints. Tariff implementation and logistics cost inflation are now amplifying pressures created by demand-driven volatility.  

Despite an overall sense of stability, Q3 revealed how quickly market dynamics can change when multiple pressure points converge. Last quarter, tariff speculation left the market unsure of what would come next. As those duties come into effect, long-term plans and demand behavior are shifting.

Many buyers have abandoned caution in favor of urgent ordering and expediting requests with hopes of fulfillment before the next wave of tariffs hits. This trend, much like pre-tariff panic buying in Q2, impacts accurate demand visibility and contributes to higher price negotiations across the chain.  

The following breakdown outlines where the most significant shifts have occurred this quarter.

• Memory: DDR4 and HBM continue to lead the list of constrained components. Samsung’s end-of-life announcement for DDR4 has significantly tightened supply and elevated pricing, with lead times extending beyond 16 weeks in some cases. Shortages are expected to continue through Q4 2025, but the pace of price increases will slow slightly.  

• Storage: Lead times for SSDs and eMMC modules are climbing as demand for AI and enterprise infrastructure buildouts constrains supply. Lead times are rising for nearly all suppliers and is expected to continue this trajectory through the end of the year.  

• Passives: Most passive component families remain stable, but market stress is beginning to emerge. As with storage, AI and server builds are tightening supply, particularly among MLCCs used in high-performance applications. Lead times for polymer tantalum capacitors have extended by 8-10 weeks. In parallel, PCB constraints have also surfaced as a result of AI infrastructure demand.  

• Discrete: Overall supply is stable. However, categories exposed to automotive demand and tariffs, including diodes, MOSFETs, and automotive-grade logic, are experiencing volatility.  

• Analog: Lead times and prices remain mostly stable. However, capacity and verification bottlenecks at Texas Instruments and Analog Devices are causing some delivery delays. Additionally, a fire at a TI facility has led the firm to adjust a subset of prices by approximately 15% to 70%.  

• Interconnects: Lead times for interconnect products have remained stable through Q3, but sharp price volatility is expected. Tariff exposure, particularly in China-origin connector accessories, is expected to drive costs upward. Buyers should monitor this category closely in early Q4 as new tariff enforcement mechanisms take effect.

Quarter-over-quarter comparison

In Q2, the semiconductor market was defined by stabilization and speculation. In Q3, formal implementation has taken its place, with new tariffs actively reshaping procurement behavior and sourcing strategies. What was once a slow-moving sector shaped by long-term forecasts is now reacting in near real time to geopolitical, technological, and logistical shocks.

Tariffs remain the largest market risk for semiconductors and are expected to drive pass-through price hikes across supply chains. Moreover, many buyers are increasingly shifting procurement away from Chinese sources in favor of those operating on U.S. soil to hedge against further cost escalation.  

Meanwhile, a recent fire at the Kanto Denka facility in Japan has drawn attention due to its role in producing critical NF3 gas. NF3 is essential for cleaning equipment and wafer etching, and its derivatives are used in metal wiring processes for advanced chips. If recovery is delayed, pricing of advanced components could rise in Q4 and Q1 2026.  

Adding pressure to the market are shipping costs, which have nearly doubled on Asia to U.S. routes since May. This adds to the total cost of procurement and has a pronounced effect on low-margin components like passives and connectors, even without upstream material inflation.  

The convergence of tariff exposure and AI infrastructure growth leaves passives and interconnects vulnerable to supply shocks. High-cap MLCCs and polymer tantalum capacitators are increasingly difficult to source at stable lead times. PCB constraints, though not widely reported in Q2, have also emerged due to bottlenecks tied to AI and cloud data center expansions.  

These developments are particularly visible in components with either tariff exposure or sensitivity to AI-driven infrastructure demand. While most of the Q2 concern focused on questions about whether tariffs would materialize, whether DDR4 would be phased out, or whether PCB bottlenecks would form, Q3 confirmed that each of these risks is not only real but already in motion.  

For procurement teams, this means less time to respond and fewer levers to pull as lead times lengthen and price volatility spreads across categories. In such an environment, subtle influences like a spike in freight costs or a facility outage can ripple outward and destabilize formerly predictable segments.  

With geopolitical tensions still high and materials like copper facing potential additional export controls, the probability of broader shortages is increasing. As we move into the final quarter of the year, procurement leaders should continue to diversify suppliers, stay alert to regulatory developments, and forecast long to avoid delays due to supply constraints.  

For more information and details on category-level lead times, pricing insights, and supply chain risks, download the full Sourceability Q3 Lead Time Report.