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IPC Releases PCB Industry Results for October 2009

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:14:47 +0000

IPC-Association Connecting Electronics Industries

BANNOCKBURN, Ill., USA, November 24, 2009 - IPC - Association Connecting Electronics Industries® announced today the October findings from its monthly North American Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Statistical Program.

PCB Industry Growth Rates and Book-to-Bill Ratios Announced Rigid PCB shipments declined 14.0 percent and bookings were down 2.1 percent in October 2009 from October 2008. Year to date, rigid PCB shipments were down 26.0 percent and bookings fell by 22.7 percent. Compared to the previous month, rigid PCB shipments declined 7.8 percent and rigid bookings decreased 16.2 percent. The book-to-bill ratio for the North American rigid PCB industry in October 2009 increased slightly to 1.10.

Flexible circuit shipments in October 2009 went up 4.3 percent and bookings decreased 2.6 percent compared to October 2008. Year to date, flexible circuit shipments were down 0.9 percent and bookings were down 4.7 percent. Compared to the previous month, flexible circuit shipments went down 14.1 percent and flex bookings fell by 30.9 percent. The North American flexible circuit book-to-bill ratio in October 2009 climbed to 1.00.

For rigid PCBs and flexible circuits combined, industry shipments in October 2009 decreased 12.8 percent from October 2008 and orders booked decreased 2.1 percent from October 2008. Year to date, combined industry shipments were down 24.4 percent and bookings were down 21.5 percent. Compared to the previous month, combined industry shipments for October 2009 decreased 8.3 percent and bookings went down 17.4 percent. The combined (rigid and flex) industry book-to-bill ratio in October 2009 reached 1.09.

“Although year-on-year growth rates are still mostly negative, we can see a positive growth trend in North American PCB sales and orders compared to most earlier months in 2009,” said IPC President Denny McGuirk. “Declines in sales from September to October of this year reflect a seasonal trend that we typically see at the beginning of a new quarter,” he added. “The overall trend, however, is upward and that is also reflected in the book-to-bill ratio, which has remained high for the past six months.”

The book-to-bill ratios are calculated by dividing the value of orders booked over the past three months by the value of sales billed during the same period from companies in IPC’s survey sample. A ratio of more than 1.00 suggests that current demand is ahead of supply, which is a positive indicator for sales growth over the next two to six months.

Book-to-bill ratios and growth rates for rigid PCBs and flexible circuits combined are heavily affected by the rigid PCB segment. Rigid PCBs represent an estimated 91 percent of the current PCB industry in North America, according to IPC’s World PCB Production and Laminate Market Report.

The Role of Domestic Production IPC’s monthly survey of the North American PCB industry tracks bookings and shipments from U.S. and Canadian facilities, which provide indicators of regional demand. These numbers do not measure U.S. and Canadian PCB production. To track regional production trends, however, IPC asks survey participants for the percent of their reported shipments that were produced domestically (i.e., in the USA or Canada). In October 2009, 87 percent of total PCB shipments reported were domestically produced. Domestic production accounted for 87 percent of rigid PCB and 89 percent of flexible circuit shipments in October by IPC survey participants. These numbers are significantly affected by the mix of companies in IPC’s survey sample, which may change slightly in January, but are kept constant through the calendar year.

Bare Circuits versus Assembly Flexible circuit sales typically include value-added services such as assembly, in addition to the bare flex circuits. In October, the flexible circuit manufacturers in IPC’s survey sample indicated that bare circuits accounted for approximately 76 percent of their shipment value reported for the month. Assembly and other services make up a large and growing segment of flexible circuit producers’ businesses. This figure is also sensitive to changes in the survey sample, which may occur at the beginning of each calendar year.

Interpreting the Data Year-on-year and year-to-date growth rates provide the most meaningful view of industry growth. Month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they may reflect cyclical effects. Because bookings tend to be more volatile than shipments, changes in the book-to-bill ratios from month to month may not be significant unless a trend of three consecutive months or more is apparent. It is also important to consider changes in bookings and shipments to understand what is driving changes in the book-to-bill ratio.

The information in IPC’s monthly PCB industry statistics is based on data provided by a representative sample of both rigid and flexible PCB manufacturers in the USA and Canada. IPC publishes the PCB Book-to-Bill Ratio and the PCB Statistical Program Report each month. Statistics for the previous month are not available until the last week of the following month.

About IPC IPC (www.IPC.org) is a global trade association based in Bannockburn, Ill., dedicated to the competitive excellence and financial success of its 2,700 member companies which represent all facets of the electronics industry, including design, printed board manufacturing, electronics assembly and test. As a member-driven organization and leading source for industry standards, training, market research and public policy advocacy, IPC supports programs to meet the needs of an estimated $1.7 trillion global electronics industry. IPC maintains additional offices in Taos, N.M.; Arlington, Va.; Garden Grove, Calif.; Stockholm, Sweden; Moscow, Russia; and Shanghai and Shenzhen, China.

Chinese PCB Market drops in 2009; Rebound in 2010

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:25:43 +0000

In 2008, the sales revenue of PCB products in Chinese market has achieved RMB 118.8 billion, and the single-sided printed board, double-sided printed board, multilayer printed board, and flexible printed board account for the 2.5%, 6.9%, 73.8%, and 16.8% of the total market, respectively.

The global financial crisis exploded in the fourth quarter of 2008 brought serious negative influences to the Chinese PCB industry, but, thanks to the high growth during the prior three quarters, the sales revenue of PCB products in China achieved the increase of 2.2% in 2008. To confront the economic crisis and guarantee the industry’s healthy development, the Chinese government constituted the Readjustment and Development Plan of Electronic Information Industry, to prevent the industry’s large-scale slide in some extent.

Frost & Sullivan forecasts that the Chinese market demands for PCB products reach RMB 97.2 billion with the decrease of 18.2% in 2009, and the market is expected to rebound in 2010 with the gradual emergence of incentive policies’ effects and the recovery of consumers’ confidence.

Asia market trends in printed boards (PCB)

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:59:20 +0000

Last week, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) released the August production numbers for printed circuit boards. This statistical data from the first eight months of 2009 provides us with a pretty good snapshot of market trends and allows us to forecast performance for the remainder of the year.

August shipments for printed circuit boards in Japan totaled 54.553 billion yen, representing a 7.5% decline from the previous month. This decline can be attributed to the week-long summer vacation in August; however, comparing August 2008 to August 2009 shows a decline of 22.9%.

The good news is this monthly decline rate has decreased steadily over the year, and most of us predict a positive growth rate will be realized before year’s end (comparing month to month).

HDI PCB in China’s market share is still on the rise

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:13:05 +0000

The supply of HDI PCB in China accounts for 26% of the global total supply. The data surveyed by TPCA shows that HDI PCB market has made a value of 2.66 billion dollars in 2008, with an increase of 15.4% over the same period last year. And it expects to achieve 11.2 billion dollars in global in 2009. Although the global economic downturn has led to the slow pace of the industry, China’s market share will remain on the rise.

As the expanding of PCB product applications in China, HDI PCB is hopeful to achieve the highest supply growth among all the PCB products. The active handset market will drive the rapid development of this industry, which only accounts for 1 / 4 in China’s PCB industry. About 90% of global handsets use HDI PCB, of which most come from China. Thus, the industry of HDI PCB in China is expected to expand rapidly in the short term.

Except for the telecommunication products, HDI PCB can also be widely used in computer, consumer electronics and automotive products. The adoption in medical, industrial and military fields also keeps increasing. China enterprises will pay more attention to the high profit applications when the demand for handset market is declining.

In order to meet the trend of miniaturization of electronic products, the research of HDI PCB aims at improving the accuracy, density and reducing the line width / distance of products. Large manufacturers plan to expand the production of multi-layer HDI PCB, with the diameter: Φ0.1mm, line distance: 2mil, layer alignment tolerances: 3mil and impedance control under the range of + / -5%.

Chinese manufacturers can provide 1 + N +1, 2 + N +2 and 3 + N +3 HDI PCB, of which 2 + N +2 HDI PCB is the mainstream. 3 + N +3 HDI PCB is mainly used for 3G mobile phones and other high-end electronic products.

Visible recovery of mobile PCB mill in China

admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:51:45 +0000

Since the second half of this year, the PCB market has recoverred significantly, while the growth in market of PCB using in mobile becomes more apparent.
Hua Tong, a pcb factory in Twaiwan, actively strive for mobile phone customer orders from mainland China , and obtain very significant results. Mobile phone customers in the mainland China accounts for 15% of the proportion of pass. The company successfully obtained orders from Huawei Technologies last year, mainland handset customers in the first half of 2008 revenues accounted for 5% to 15% in the second half, as the mainland increased eight million mobile phones each month it can enjoy the fruits of growth. Huatong company said shipments in the second half of mobile phone board is expected to increase by more than 20 percent higher than in the first half, which is expected to more than 95 million, with shipments rising in the mobile phone board, the Chinese-pass in the second half is expected to turn losses into profits, throughout the year Shipments of mobile phone board is expected to reach 170 million.
With the increasing orders of mobile pcbs, Motorola benefit the growth of operating income growth in the third quarter, estimated from the current orders that third-quarter earnings are expected to exceed the first half, the Company is optimistic about the results for the second half year. After the adjustment of the company’s management in second half of last year, together with the re-consolidation in mainland China factory, operating better and better.
Due to production utilization growth and the stock plummeted in the second quarter,making Unimicron 6% gross profit margin from the first quarter to the sharp rebound 18% in the second quarter, single-quarter after-tax surplus of 1.05 billion NTD, operating conditions greatly improved. Looking in the third quarter, due to the effect of the mobile phone manufacturers in the second quarter making a variety of high-end mobile phones, it will be appearred in the third quarter also.

PCB Developmental Trends in Taiwan

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:05:25 +0000

Reports from industry news groups in Taiwan address the possibility of a capacity shortage for Taiwanese PCB manufacturers in the fourth quarter. These announcements are causing anxiety for anyone associated with the industry because business trends for Taiwanese PCB manufacturers are recognized as a worldwide barometer for the consumer electronics segment.
Shipments from Taiwanese manufacturers plummeted during the fourth quarter of 2008 by almost 75%. The financial crisis of September 2008, followed by the dreadful fourth quarter drop in business, caused everyone in the PCB industry in Taiwan to act quickly to keep the ship afloat. The rebound in sales was quick, and January 2009 showed signs of a recovery. Shipments continued to increase steadily during the second half of the first quarter. This spike in business was not from current product lines, but new gadgets that include netbooks and smart phones. These markets have exploded and created new business avenues for manufacturers. Taiwanese flexible circuit manufacturers are also busy from the portable electronics segment.
The growth rate slowed in the latter part of the second quarter, but the Taiwanese PCB industry is happy with a moderate growth rate during the third quarter. Market trends suggest a typical year where manufacturers receive an increase in orders in anticipation of a busy Christmas season. Operation managers are reporting that their manufacturing plants are operating at full capacity due to the influx of new orders.
Unfortunately, market indexes for August reveals more than a 20% decline in volume compared to the same month last year; only the larger industry leading manufacturers are seeing an increase in business. So, who is riding this wave? A few large manufacturers that are fortunate enough to have customers associated with netbooks and smart phones are the ones who have seen positive growth since August. The majority of Taiwanese PCB manufacturers have negative growth compared to last year. Business for mid-sized manufacturers declined 40 to 60% comparing August 2008 to August 2009, and there are no clear signs that things will bounce back in the near future.
Sales and marketing teams from leading PCB companies report brisk sales and large orders in their queue for the fourth quarter; however, they are unable to provide a clear business forecast for 2010. Much of their activity is tied to portable electronics sales. Taiwanese manufacturers are in the hiring mode, assuming a busy season, but management is pulling back the reigns and do not want to expand the workforce too much in fear of another decline in business

Huge demand of PCB from automotive relay

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:08:19 +0000

The global total demand for relays is around 2.3 billion, of which automotive relay account for about 55%.
As consumers have constant requirements for all the functions of cars, car designers have to improve or redesign present electronic modules and electronic circuits of automobiles. Thus, there is a new requirement for the design of PCB automobile relays. Designers will more integrate the control of flash lights, the control of time-delay and other functions into the control module. Then the future demands for these products will gradually reduce, and they are likely to be replaced by PCB relays.
In addition, it’s possible that the traditional automotive electronic modules switched by PCB relays will be replaced by the new solution of automotive electronic circuit.

PCB demand for feature phones raising

admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:39:28 +0000

Taiwan-based PCB makers have seen growing orders from the feature phone segment, signaling overall handset demand in the fourth quarter is likely to return to seasonal patterns, according to sources at the makers.

Feature phone orders from Nokia, LG Electronics (LGE) and Sony Ericsson have been increasing since September 2009, and demand for smartphones remains strong in the second half of the year, driving revenues of handset PCB makers. Handset PCB revenues are expected to grow more than 10% in the fourth quarter, the sources estimated.Unitech Printed Circuit Board and Compeq Manufacturing both indicated their current orders for PCBs for feature phones are relatively stronger than for smartphones.

China has the greatest potential in Global PCB field

admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:35:14 +0000

Statistics from China Epoxy Resin Industry Association show that the total output value of Global epoxy PCB was estimated at 51.5 billion U.S. dollars, down 45, compared with 2007. The market value may be a negative growth 12% in epoxy resin PCB industry this year. However, China is still the most potential market under the support of Chinese government expanding domestic demand expansion, household appliances to the countryside, and launching 3G context.
In a recent press conference, Lu Haotian from TPCA said Chinese epoxy resin PCB industry has become the world’s largest producer, which has kept more than 2 percent of high growth rates in the past six years. But by the global financial crisis, the growth will be lower than 20%, will be 17.8% for the first time; it possibly has a negative growth over 12% this year. However, the expert s believe it still can drive 600 billion business opportunities under the active promotion of Chinese Government for home appliances to the countryside, 3G services and so on. In addition, the government has also introduced preferential policies to bring good to the epoxy resin PCB. It’s expected epoxy resin PCB May gradually warm up in the third Quarter.
According to the experts of China Association of epoxy resin industry, “2009 Suzhou PCB / SMT Exhibition” sponsored by Strait economic and technological cooperation will be held in Suzhou, which is organized by TPCA Exhibition and has been successfully held four sessions. The sponsor hope to promote cross-strait industry to ride out the storm, further enhance China’s technological level of the circuit board, for and hold market share in the international market.

German PCB Market Shows Betterment in June

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:25:48 +0000

Revenues for the German PCB market shows improvement in June, growing 10% compared to the previous month, according to the German Electrical and Electronics Industry Association (ZVEI) and VdL. Compared to year-ago levels, the value is just above one third, but industry observers attribute this to current global economic conditions.

The incoming orders are unusually low, reaching only half of the ten-year average value. Compared to the same period last year, the decrease was more than 60%. Despite this, the majority of the manufacturers say that they have already experienced a slight increase in incoming orders.

Meanwhile, the book-to-bill ratio was at 0.60-the lowest ever value since the introduction of this metric.