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Kolkata: Consumer electronics and smartphone makers are stockpiling key inputs and finished goods well beyond their normal inventory cycles as rising input costs force record price hikes.Companies are building inventories of memory chips and crude-linked derivatives such as plastics amid persistent price increases and supply uncertainties. This is in deviation to the usual practice where supplies are mostly linked to actual demand, except during peak buying season like Diwali.According to market tracker Counterpoint Research smartphone shipments rose about 20% month-on-month in March despite a nearly 10% drop in sales, indicating inventory build-up at current price levels. Shipments have exceeded sales over the past quarter even as the market contracted by more than 9%, with stocking running 2–3 percentage points higher than actual sales.Electronics firms are also adding 15–20 days of extra plastic inventory after prices jumped about 30% in the last quarter, driven by higher crude oil prices following the Gulf conflict. However, supply remains constrained, with companies pressing vendors for additional volumes.“We are buying whatever memory chips we can get and placing extra orders,” said Satish NS, president at TV and appliance maker Haier India . “Plastic is harder to stock due to warehousing constraints, but we are still adding 10–15 days of extra inventory.”The industry is grappling with a 1.8–2x surge in memory chip prices over the past six months, along with erratic supplies, as a large share is being diverted to artificial intelligence data centres and infrastructure. Memory chips are key components in smartphones, televisions and laptops.Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint, said smartphone brands are procuring whatever inventory and components they are getting as component prices, especially memory, and depreciating rupee is becoming difficult to navigate every quarter. He said the overall commodity outlook is also very volatile.Industry executives said suppliers are unable to fully meet demand.“We are able to build 15–20 days of additional inventory; beyond that, suppliers are not fulfilling orders as they want to avoid hoarding,” said Avneet Singh Marwah, chief executive at Super Plastronics , which sells televisions under the Kodak, Thomson and Blaupunkt brands. “For memory chips, inventory has increased to 60 days from 45 days earlier.”Companies have raised prices of televisions, appliances and smartphones by 12–30% over the past four to five months, weighing on demand, particularly in smartphones and smart TVs where increases have been steeper.Satish said the industry has implemented price hikes from April, but visibility remains low. “No one can confirm if prices will hold in May or if another round of hike will be needed, given the volatility in raw material costs,” he said.