• November 18, 2021

Recently, the domestic PCB industry has continued to release signs of recovery, and the market’s upward trend has strengthened. In fact, due to the impact of the price increase of upstream materials, PCB companies have been under pressure for a long time, and life is not easy. As time enters the fourth quarter, the upward trend in the price of upstream raw materials has weakened. The rhythm of copper clad laminate prices has slowed down As we all know, there are many types of raw materials required for PCB production. Among them, the cost of copper clad laminate (CCL) accounts for the highest proportion. In the cost of CCL, glass fiber cloth, copper foil, and epoxy resin together account for more than 70%. According to Primark statistics, copper clad laminates account for about 30% of PCB costs, and manufacturing costs and direct labor each account for about 20%. In the cost composition of copper clad laminates, due to the different thickness of copper clad plates, the proportion of raw materials in the cost is slightly different. On the whole, glass fiber cloth accounts for 25%-40%, resin costs 25%-30%, and copper foil 30% %~50%. Undoubtedly, the continuous price increase of copper clad laminates is the main source of cost pressure for circuit board manufacturers. Some brokerage analysts pointed out that the price of copper clad laminates increased by 20% in the first quarter of this year, and continued to increase prices by 30% in the first two months of the second quarter. The price increase of some thick plates has basically doubled, and thin plates have also increased by 30%. -50% increase. PCB companies’ cost transfer is relatively lagging, resulting in damage to their performance in multiple quarters. Among them, hard-board companies that use more copper, especially automotive hard-board companies, have the greatest impact on their profitability (because automotive hard-boards mostly use thick copper, and order bargaining) The cycle is long, and the transfer speed is slower than that of communications and consumer electronics). After entering the third quarter of 2021, the price increase pace of various copper clad laminate manufacturers has slowed down significantly, and only a few manufacturers have slightly increased the prices of some products. Professionals expect that with the gradual stabilization of upstream raw material prices and the release of copper clad laminate production capacity, the price of copper clad laminates will gradually stabilize. Western Securities analyst Luo Yamei also reminded that upstream CCL manufacturers have shifted most of the cost pressure to PCB manufacturers since the second half of 2020, and continued price increases are limited. However, as to whether there will be subsequent price increases for copper clad laminates, some brokerage analysts said: "The pressure on PCB costs in the fourth quarter is still there. As for whether there will be price increases, it is still uncertain. It is not recommended...

• November 26, 2021

The penetration rate of Mini-LEDs continues to increase, placing higher demands on PCBs 1. Mini-LED has excellent performance and broad market scale The overall performance of Mini-LED is excellent, and the backlight market is the first to open a breakthrough. Generally speaking, Mini-LED 100-300μm LED chips, chip spacing between 0.1-1mm, using SMD, COB or IMD package form of micro LED device modules, are often used in RGB display or LCD backlight, current backlight solutions As the mainstream solution in the market, Zhixian's penetration rate is still low. Mini-LED inherits the high efficiency, high brightness, high reliability and fast response time of inorganic LEDs. Compared with traditional backlight design, Mini-LED has better brightness uniformity and higher contrast. Compared with OLED, Mini-LED has the advantages of longer life and higher brightness. At the same time, Mini-LED has obvious price advantages, especially 8K and super large size (75 inches and above). The Mini-LED market is developing rapidly, and the market size is expected to exceed US$2 billion. Apple's new iPad pro launched at the April 2021 conference is equipped with a Mini-LED screen, uses more than 10,000 lamp beads, and more than 2,500 local dimming zones. Samsung also launched TVs equipped with Mini-LED screens in China in March. Under the leadership of Apple and Samsung, major manufacturers have followed suit, and the Mini-LED market has rapidly expanded. According to Arizton's prediction, the global Mini LED market size is expected to increase from US$150 million to US$2.32 billion from 2021 to 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of up to 149%. The Mini-LED market is the first to explode in the large-size field. With the gradual decline in cost, Mini-LED will accelerate the penetration of medium-size, and the market size will further increase. 2. Mini-LED puts forward higher requirements on the backplane, and the current PCB is the mainstream solution Mini-LEDs have higher requirements on the substrate due to the reduction of chip size and pitch. Mini-LED substrate solutions currently mainly include PCB, FPC and glass, among which PCB and glass substrates are more popular. The difference between PCB substrate and glass substrate is mainly reflected in the following aspects: The cost of PCB materials is significantly higher than that of glass materials. Due to the complex process of glass substrates and high overall costs, glass substrates will still be subject to low yield and large-scale in the short term. The degree is not high. The PCB substrate has high structural strength and relatively mature technology, but the process accuracy is low, the glass substrate has high thermal conductivity and other properties, and the cost is low, but the substrate process is immature and easy to break. Under the current technological conditions, the PCB solution is the mainstream solution for Mini-LED substrates. The area of the LED chip is reduced, and the spacing is red...

• December 02, 2021

According to Prismark's forecast, the PCB industry is expected to grow at 8.6% in 2021, and it will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.8% between 2020 and 2025. By 2025, the global PCB industry output value will reach 86.33 billion U.S. dollars. With the continuous development of science and technology, new technologies and applications such as 5G communications, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, electric vehicles, etc. continue to emerge, and the demand for PCBs is also growing. It is worth noting that although China is a large manufacturing country and there are many PCB companies, the homogeneity of products is more serious, and it is over-concentrated on low-end PCBs with cost advantages, including traditional single and double-layer boards and multilayer boards; The proportion of high-end PCBs is still relatively low, especially for packaging substrates, high-end HDI boards, and multilayer boards. At present, the market demand for high-end PCB boards has exploded rapidly, but the output of production capacity has increased slowly, resulting in a large gap between market demand and supply. With the continuous improvement and gradual optimization of China's PCB manufacturing technology, the market share of traditional single and double-sided PCBs and multilayer PCBs has gradually declined, and the market share of high-tech, high value-added PCB boards has continued to rise. Faced with the continuous iteration and update of market demand, many PCB companies have begun to enter the high-end PCB field with higher technical thresholds and greater capital investment. Although some technologies or production capacities are backward, the market competition in the PCB industry is still fierce. The supply of high-end PCB market is still dominated by foreign manufacturers. As domestic PCB peripheral supporting facilities are not perfect, some key PCB materials, high-end equipment, and engineering software are dependent on imports. With the gradual breakthrough of domestic manufacturing technology, the related supply chain will also achieve better growth. Domestic PCB companies will gradually grow up to develop independent innovative technologies and equipment to respond to the rapidly changing needs of the market.