News
BALTIMORE -- North American production of printed circuit boards will be flat this year, a leading analyst predicted.
Speaking Thursday at IPC's semiannual market research meetings, Dr. Hayao Nakahara said that production of circuit boards in North American rose 11% to about $5 billion last year, but that 2005's soft start makes it unlikely that growth will be achieved this year.
Dr. Nakahara, a PCD&M columnist who is widely recognized as the world's top authority on PCB production, said that North American-based PCB makers produced $890 million worth of high technology boards worldwide last year. Dr. Nakahara defined high technology as boards of 18 or more layers. The U.S. remains the top producer worldwide of such boards, with a 54% share, Dr. Nakahara said.
The figures do not include backplanes; the U.S. built $300 million worth of backplanes in 2004; about half the worldwide total, according to Dr. Nakahara.
However, North America's share of the overall PCB market is 14%, down from about 40% in 2000. Most of North America's loss has been China's gain: the nation has surged to 25% share, up more than 15 points during that period.
From 1995 to 2000 North American companies spent $4.8 billion on acquisitions of PCB capacity. Of that sum, just $1 billion worth remains open, Dr. Nakahara said.
PCB Production Forecast, 2005-07
2005 2006 2007
China 34.0 26.0 16.0
N. America 6.0 2.0 1.0
Japan 1.0 1.2 1.4
Europe 1.0 1.0 1.0
S. Korea 22.0 15.0 10.0
Taiwan 15.0 7.0 5.0
Thailand 5.5 4.0 4.0
Source: N.T. Information Ltd., May 2005
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - The co-located SMTA International and ATExpo show on Sept 25-29, in Rosemont, IL, will once again feature the Emerging Technologies Summit. The summit is a series of three paper sessions and a panel discussion (moderated bySteve Greathouse of Intel Corp.) addressing the latest trend in electronics manufacturing and assembly.
The first session, Roadmaps, will feature papers on iNEMI's Optoelectronics Roadmap for 2004, Emerging Nanotechnology and Its Effect on Electronics Manufacturing, and Free Silicon Marketing Strategy.
The next session, Turning Lead Into Gold, will feature papers on Gold Bump Technologies, Flip Chip Ultrasonic Gold-to-Gold Interconnect for High Bump Count Devices, Adhesive Flip Chip for Large Arrayed Devices, and Packaging of High-Power LEDs Using Au Studbump Interconnects.
The last session, Advanced Power Technology, will feature papers on mPowerChip: A Solution for Integrated Power for Microsystems and Integration of Active and Passive Components Using Chip in Polymer Technology.
For further details and for event registration, visit smta.org/smtai/
Vienna - AT&S, Europe's largest PCB manufacturer, began construction last week on a second plant in Shanghai. When it comes online in 15 months, the 75,000m² production facility will triple the company's capacity in China.
"The second plant in Shanghai will definitively put us in the position as the most modern high performance printed circuit board manufacturer in the high-tech segment," said Willi Dörflinger, chairman, in a statement. "The new capacity will come just at the right time in the second half of 2006, enabling us to tend to the climbing demand in the HDI microvia area."
Upon completion of the plant, located next to the existing plant, about 50% of AT&S' global capacity will come from its plants in India and China.The company's step toward Asian expansion takes place exactly four years after the cornerstone was laid for the first plant.
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