IC distributor sources said slowing demand for mobile phones, laptops and other consumer electronic equipment has led to a backlog of related IC inventories, but industrial control ICs are still in short supply, and suppliers have raised prices and may increase prices again to reflect the ongoing Chip shortages.

According to Digitimes, ANStek and other Taiwanese IC distributors are expected to be the beneficiaries of rising prices for industrial control ICs and other niche ICs, the person said.

ANStek, which sells industrial control ICs for suppliers such as ADI and Xilinx, saw its first-quarter 2022 gross margin increase by 2.67 percentage points year-over-year to 15.4% despite flat revenue growth.

Supply of industrial control ICs has fallen short of demand, pushing up chip prices, ANStek said. The company said the appreciation of the U.S. dollar was another factor in ANStek's gross margin increase in the first quarter of this year.

While growing economic uncertainty is weakening demand for consumer and mass-market device applications, chip demand for remote technology and industrial AIoT device applications has grown strong, ANStek said.