Japan Electronic Materials Output Unchanged y/y in March

Japanese electronic materials output was 34.77 billion yen in March, as same as a year earlier, according to Japan Electronics & Technology Industries Association. The production of permanent magnet maintained steady while other electronic materials represented the year-to-year down for metal materials, semiconductive ceramics and dielectric ceramics.Permanent magnet output increased by 12% year-on-year in March. Especially the output of neodymium-iron-boron magnet represented 17% year-on-year increase. Demand growth and higher material costs pushed up the output value. On the other hand, the output of ferrite magnet decreased by 7% from a year earlier.The metal materials output decreased by 4% in March from a year ago due to the lower price of nickel. The output of electric tube and leadframe materials downed by 1% and the other metal materials decreased by 9%. The production of semiconductive ceramics decreased by 1% year-on-year, up by 1% for thermistors while down by 10% for varistors. The output of dielectric ceramics showed 6% year-on-year decrease. Soft ferrite output increased by 5%.