The valve/tube world looks like it will see some interesting times ahead in 2020. Here is one thing that may impact Valve Tube Supplies in 2020.
One of the big valve suppliers is closing down their factory and re-located it to a new plant. This closure is rumoured to happen on the 30th December 2019. Production is supposedly already winding down in anticipation of the factory closure.
The valve market is dominated by three players New Sensor Inc ( Electro Harmonix) with its two large factories in the Russian Federation in Kaluga and Saratov, Shuguang in China and JJ Electronic in Cadca, Slovakia. The biggest two are New Sensor and Shuguang.
Shuguang is relocating from its suburban location. I heard that they had a fire at the factory and the Chinese government realised that this was a high risk location for the population living in the local area. If you don’t recognise the name then some of the re-branders names might be familiar. They certainly re-brand Chinese valves.
Only time will tell what the impact can be on valve supplies in general.
It is certainly good news for New Sensor and JJ Electronic ! Amp companies will be buying a lot more from them than previously.
There will be plenty of stock in the supply chain from Shuguang, however, a factory relocation is not an overnight job and we can probably expect shortages of Shuguang through 2020 and well into 2021. Latest news is that they are not going to back in production until some undefined date in 2021
EHX and JJ will need to fill in the hole in availability. If you hear of any news on this, please let us know.
There are a few models of amps that can only use Chinese output valves and if you have one of them then it would be a good move to get a set of spares. This is not a sales pitch as we do not sell Chinese valves !!
If we get any updates, we will add to this blog.
