Our Jan. 27 newsletter spoke about a decline from Taiwanese PWB manufacturers: “The barometer for the Taiwanese electronics industry is falling – signaling bad weather ahead.”

Shipments for the global semiconductor industry plunged during December. Could this be the beginning of a recession for the global electronics industry? Unfortunately, it may be true.

January shipments from the global semiconductor industry declined again. The total decline was more than 20% compared with peak shipments during October 2018. Most of it originated from China and North America, bucking a growth trend during the past two years. Other markets from Europe, Japan and Far East countries are indicating a slowdown, but their slump in sales is relatively small.

The slowdown is spreading to even more electronics products since the end of last year. Sales from other electronic components were trending downward from November 2018, and dropped significantly during December. Movement from passive components dropped the most, and flow from others including connectors and conversion components are trending downward.

The Taiwanese printed circuit industry recorded another negative growth in February compared to the same month last year. February is typically a slow month in Taiwan because of the Chinese New Year that lasts more than two weeks. Unfortunately, February shipments declined more than they did last year comparing month over month.

The Japanese electronics industry is relatively unscathed compared with their peers. Shipments for electronic equipment and printed circuit boards are relatively stable compared to other regions. One industry expert commented the electronics industry (manufacturing) already suffered through its slowdown, and he felt they had bottomed out.

The industry is close to the bottom; downward trends may continue for a couple of months. Larger-sized EMS companies and vendors in their supply chain are not too happy with their first quarter results. They are optimistic with a turnaround toward the end of the second quarter. I share their optimism, and look forward to posting their results in the future.

Dominique K. Numakura, dnumakura@dknresearch.com

DKN Research, www.dknresearch.com

DKN Research Newsletter #1908, March 31, 2019 (English Edition)(Micro Electronics & Packaging)

For the newsletter archives, click here.

Headlines of the Week (Contact haverhill@dknreseach.com for further information and news.)

1. Tohoku University (Japan) developed a lithium base super ion conductor for all solid state secondary batteries. It will make energy density extremely high.

2. Mitsui Chemical (Major chemical company in Japan) opened the Design & Solution Center in Niigata Prefecture to support new business of mobility, healthcare and food & packaging.

3. Marubeni (Major trading company in Japan) will conduct demonstrations of autonomous driving vehicle at Chubu Central International Airport in Japan using medium size EV buses.

4. Nissan (Major automobile manufacturer in Japan) will start the 5G driving test of “Invisible-to-Visible” technology cooperating with NTT DOCOMO.

5. Toshiba (Major electric & electronics company in Japan) developed a new on-time subtitle system for presentations of conferences and business meetings.

6. Asahi Kasei (Major chemical company in Japan) will expand manufacturing capacity of separator films for the lithium ion secondary batteries.

7. Hitachi (Major electric & electronics company in Japan) will start a R&D project, molecular diagnosis system for precious medicines cooperating with Keio University.

8. Sony (Major electronics company in Japan) developed a new small size CMOS image sensor device with global shutter mechanisms for control systems of the manufacturing plants.

9. AGC (Major glass product manufacturer in Japan) will strengthen the R&D organization to develop glass antenna for the automobile applications.

10. JCTG Energy (Major energy source and mining company in Japan) co-developed a gas generation for CO2 free hydrogen using organic hydrolight. The group was successful for large scale field test.

11. Canon (Major electronics company in Japan) commercialized a new CMOS sensor with 120 million pixels. It covers not only visible light, but also near infrared light.

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