The price increase has affected the industrial automation industry.
On Friday, Omron issued a price adjustment notice. Industrial automation products including PLC, HMI, robots, relays, sensors, switches, thermostats and other industrial automation products will officially increase prices starting from February 7. The price increase will be a minimum of 5%, and the price increase of some parallel robot products will be as high as 50%.
Entering 2026, price increases have become the main theme of the electronics industry.
The rising prices of upstream metal raw materials such as copper and silver and the shortage of production capacity have led to a significant increase in the cost of memory chips, various passive devices, connectors, and chip packaging and testing stages, which has been transmitted to the industrial automation field.
Industrial giants have collectively raised prices, and industrial computers and motors have become the hardest hit areas.
In fact, since January this year, various industrial giants have begun to issue price increase letters one after another.
On December 31 last year, Schneider announced a price increase of about 6% for the entire Acti9/Acti9-S series miniature circuit breakers, which will take effect on January 1, 2026. At the same time, it also announced that a series of products will increase prices on February 1, involving ATS22 series soft starters, STB Advantys full range of l/o and Momentum series controllers, Ethernet gateway modules, Ethernet communication modules, industrial computers and other products.
Among them, the PSA6/P6 series industrial computers have the highest price increase, with the entire series increasing by 20%. The reason is that the cost of storage products within the industrial computers has increased significantly and supply continues to be tight.
Then on January 5, Schneider adjusted the prices of motor protection and control products, and the price increase of some high-current products was as high as 20%.
The company explained this as the sharp surge in the prices of silver, copper and other metals. Silver, as a key raw material for PCP products, has increased by more than 100% in the past year.
Siemens began to increase prices for private server systems, CNC systems, PLC and other products on January 1 this year. The price increase is generally around 5%, and the price increase of spare parts for some delisted products is as high as 38%.
Inovance Technology stated at the beginning of the year that due to intensified commodity price fluctuations, the prices of core raw materials such as copper, aluminum, praseodymium and neodymium, gold, tin, and storage devices continued to rise. Starting from January 10, the prices of PLC, HMI, CNC numerical control systems, private server systems, direct drive systems, industrial motors and other products will be increased by 5% to 20%.
The price of the entire series of industrial motor products with large amounts of copper has increased by 12%, and the price of medium-sized PLC products including AC700, AC800, and AM700 series products has increased by 20%.
Delixi Electric announced on January 3 that in response to the sharp increase in raw material prices, it would increase the prices of circuit breakers, relays, fuses, various types of switches and other products by up to 20%.
ABB announced on January 5 that due to the continued surge in copper prices, the prices of all high- and low-voltage motor and generator product series will be increased by 10%.
On February 5, Infineon also announced that due to the high demand for AI data centers, there is a shortage of various power switches and power ICs. At the same time, affected by the increase in raw materials, Infineon will begin to implement a new price strategy on April 1.
However, Infineon has not yet announced the details of the price increase. It is expected that as the market changes, there will be new adjustments before April 1.
Judging from the reasons for the price increases of various companies, this round of price increases for industrial automation products is mainly affected by three major factors: metals, memory chips, and tight production capacity caused by AI demand.
According to data from the London Metal Exchange LME, LME copper prices increased by 53.7% from January 2025 to January this year; silver prices increased by nearly 200%.
In industrial automation scenarios, motors are the core driving source. Motors serve as core electromagnetic devices that convert electrical energy into mechanical energy. Windings are key components for energy conduction and magnetic field generation.
The conductivity of copper is second only to silver among commonly used industrial metals, and much higher than that of aluminum, iron and other materials. Using copper to make windings can minimize Joule heat loss during current transmission and reduce energy waste. This is the core prerequisite to ensure the operating efficiency of motors, especially high-efficiency and ultra-efficient motors. In order to further reduce copper losses and improve energy efficiency, the cross-sectional area or length of copper windings will also be deliberately increased
, further increasing the amount of copper; at the same time, copper has excellent ductility and can be easily drawn into thin wires of different specifications. It can be wound into complex windings suitable for various motor structures to meet the design and manufacturing needs of different power and types of motors. Its good thermal conductivity can also quickly dissipate the heat generated when the winding is working, preventing local overheating from affecting the service life and operating stability of the motor.
Therefore, in industrial asynchronous motors, copper accounts for up to 40% of the motor cost, and some high-efficiency industrial motors may use more copper.
It can be seen that in this round of price increases, ABB has raised prices for its entire range of motor products.
At the same time, in industrial control applications, relays, contactors, servo motors, various precision sensors, etc. will also use silver with better conductivity and better oxidation resistance as a key material, such as for contact plating, motor commutators, etc.
The storage price will have a greater impact on PLC, industrial computers, etc.
According to incomplete statistics, among the DRAM products currently on the market, DDR4 chips were affected by the suspension of production by major manufacturers last year, and some products have increased by as much as 1,800% in the past year; while DDR5 has also been in demand by AI data centers, with prices rising by as much as 500%.
The growth rate of NAND Flash products is slightly lower, but some products also have a growth rate of more than 300%.
According to counterpoint data, memory prices have increased by more than 90% from the fourth quarter of last year to early February this year, with the price increase of server-grade DRAM memory modules being particularly significant.
Counterpoint predicts that memory prices will increase by about 20% in the second quarter of this year.
At present, it seems that the prices of copper, silver and other metals, as well as the prices of memory chips, will continue to rise, and the trend of overall price increases in the electronics industry in 2026 will also continue.
Silver and copper prices have skyrocketed, and connector manufacturers have also increased prices one after another.
Another connector industry that uses a large amount of metal is naturally affected by rising copper and silver prices.
The core raw materials of connectors mainly include metals such as copper, gold, and silver, and special engineering plastics such as LCP (liquid crystal polymer).
Among them, in China’s connector industry, the annual consumption of copper in automotive connector systems reaches 610,000 tons.
In the past two months, many connector companies in the industry have successively announced price increases: As early as November 2025, Amphenol and China Xingkun announced price increases.
Amphenol announced that it will adjust prices for its entire range of products starting from January 1; China Xingkun adopts a differentiated strategy and maintains the original price for old strategic cooperation customers, but significantly increases prices for new customers and agents by 40%-80% starting from March 1.
TE Connectivity (Tyco Electronics) announced on January 27 that it would implement price increases for all product lines and all regions starting from January 27, 2026. The specific range was not announced, but it was emphasized that it was in response to “continuously rising manufacturing costs.”
HUMMEL announced in January that it will implement a new price system starting from February 1, 2026, with an overall increase of 3%–8%.
Other manufacturers such as HRS (Hirose Electric), WEIDMÜLLER, YAZAKI (Yazaki), etc. have also followed suit, with increases generally ranging from 4% to 15%.
This round of price increases covers almost all connector categories, ranging from general parts to high-end connectors.
Among them, high-voltage connectors are widely used in new energy vehicles and have extremely high requirements for pressure resistance, heat dissipation, and sealing; high-speed and high-frequency connectors are used in 5G base stations, AI servers, and data centers, relying on high-performance materials such as LCP; board-to-board/wire-to-board connectors are basic components in the fields of consumer electronics and industrial control.
Summary: The prices of industrial metals such as copper and silver are running at high levels, and the supply and demand imbalance and price surge of superimposed memory chips caused by the explosion of AI demand are setting off a cost change sweeping the entire electronics industry chain. The continued acceleration of AI computing power construction will further deepen the impact of this trend and become the core background for the development of the electronics industry in 2026.
For supply chain companies, a large-scale market fluctuation may be a new round of industry reshuffle. Actively responding to the complex and changing market environment, and how to shift from passive to proactive has become the key to corporate development in the next year.
