Keywords
Citation
(2001), "Tough times ahead for PCB industry", Circuit World, Vol. 27 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/cw.2001.21727dab.009
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited
Tough times ahead for PCB industry
Tough times ahead for PCB industry
Keywords: Printed circuit boards
After an extended period where market conditions have favoured suppliers, PCB supply markets look set to stabilise after drops in demand in some key sectors such as PCs and Telecomms.
As recently as last November, PCB buyers were under pressure. Capacity was tight, lead times were lengthening, and even producers had difficulty securing supplies of sufficient raw materials such as laminate. As a result, prices increased.
However, just three months later, things have changed. Against increases of between 5 percent and 10 percent during late 2000, up to 3 percent has already been recovered, and the outlook suggests that this will continue. According to the Purcon-iPro PCB Market Tracker (www.purcon-ipro.com), a buyers' market could be back on the cards. The report states "there are signals from the market that, despite current order books being relatively strong, that growth is slowing. New capacity will come on stream in Asia later this year, and unless demand picks up, producers will have to fight on price to fill their factories".
At the moment, multilayer products are not seen as being as vulnerable to price competition as the lower technology end of the market. However, many of the high volume applications for multilayers are experiencing a slowdown in demand, and if demand does not recover, there could be new pressure on producers. Purcon-iPro also point out that China is set to become the third largest producer of PCBs by 2004, and that in square meter terms, multilayer production has already overtaken single-sided which was traditionally the largest part of the market.
By 2002, production in China will see only a 2 percent annual growth in single-sided boards, whilst multilayer could reach 30 percent per annum. As this new capacity comes on stream, prices will hold up as long as demand is there. If not, prices will fall, and European producers could be in for some tough times.