Major copper foil supplier raises prices by 12%, potentially ushering in a fresh wave of spikey prices for PCBs and plenty of PC components besides
If, like me, you've been watching the memory supply crisis escalate from between your fingers, then I don't need to tell you just how expensive some key PC components have become. Well, it's not just silicon wafers seeing runaway pricing these days, but even more foundational materials like copper foil.
Mitsui Kinzoku is arguably the biggest supplier of copper foil, a key component for printed circuit boards. The company recently sent a letter to its customers notifying them of a whopping 12% USD price increase for all of its MicroThin copper foil products. This price increase is set to come into effect in April 2026 (via Jukan on X).
The Mitsui Kinzoku letter says that current copper material prices, plus labour, have resulted in soaring manufacturing costs for its foil products, and the wider copper market has been pretty tumultuous in recent months, to say the least.
According to Bloomberg, copper prices recently saw an all-time high in January 2026, rising by 2.3% in February alone, and settling at $13,166.50 a ton on the London Metal Exchange last month. This is in part due to the unpredictable shifts of US government policy, but also operational difficulties, and an ore shortage. Even so, that's done little to slow a record output of 1.2 million tons from copper smelters.
Still, Trump's tariff agenda has created anxiety in the home market, leading to the US importing 1.7 million metric tons of copper last year—double the amount from 12 months previous—ending up with a massive stockpile. You'd think all that supply could match even an outsized demand, but for the time being futures prices have remained sky-high due to, as Bloomberg puts it, 'bullish investors'.
With all that context in mind, you should now have a better understanding of the challenging landscape that led to Thermal Grizzly getting hit by a 40,000 euro metal scam (and der8auer also discussed rising copper prices back in February).
Now, with that background down, let's talk about copper foil specifically. When you consider that manufacturers based in China account for about 80% of production capacity, tariff anxiety is thrown into sharp relief. Copper-clad laminate (CCL) suppliers have been trying to reckon with the challenging landscape of rising material expenses and copper foil processing costs since last year, according to DigiTimes.
Then there's the fact that demand from the AI industry has doubled copper foil consumption—yes, this is yet another challenging supply landscape you can at least partially blame on AI.
As such, it's not just Mitsui Kinzoku raising prices, with Mitsubishi Gas Chemical also announcing a 30% price increase across a range of products, including its resin-coated copper foil offerings, to come into effect in April.
Mitsui is the biggest name in the high-end circuit foil space, commanding a market share close to 90% (via Jukan). It has also shifted its production focus in order to better cater to AI customers, leading to a shortage of copper foil in the wider market.
In short, it's not just SSD or RAM prices that are climbing; more PC components are likely to be affected by surging prices and challenging availability in the future, too.