Motherboard Prices To Increase Again By 10%

It seems PC enthusiasts can look forward to even more price hikes this year. Motherboard vendors will be increasing the prices on their products by 10% according to industry sources. The price hike will take effect as early as the end of the first quarter of 2012. The 10% price hike comes on top of the 5-10% hike that happened in early 2011 along with the 3-8% hike in April of 2011. The reasons for this particular increase are fairly obvious, however, with the international price of copper having gone up, and labor costs in China on the rise as well. The minimum wage has jumped 8.62% in Beijing as of January 1, 2012, 14.28% increase in Shanghai takes effect on April 1, 2012, and a 13.63% raise in Shenzhen on February 1, 2012 causing labor costs to rise substantially. The increase in price for raw materials and labor has Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technology among others increasing prices for their motherboards, this has not slowed shipments however which show an increase of nearly 10% and 20% respectively. Let’s hope this is the only price hike we see on motherboards this year.