PCB News - Under the tide of price increases, PCB manufacturing companies and copper clad laminate manufacturers have very different performance!

Recently, the 2021 semi-annual reports of Chinese PCB listed companies have been released one after another
In the first half of 2021, driven by the global economic recovery and the phased alleviation of the new crown epidemic, suppressed consumer demand rebounded rapidly, making the PCB industry present a situation of high prosperity and both supply and demand. A batch of PCB manufacturing Companies seized the opportunity to achieve a bumper harvest of both revenue and profit.
It is worth noting that in the first half of this year, supply shortages and price increases of bulk commodities, raw materials, chips and various electronic components have become a common phenomenon. The electronics industry has been under pressure, and many PCB manufacturing companies have seen increased revenue but not profit. .
There are many factors that affect the profitability of PCB manufacturing companies. The main reasons for weakening the profitability of PCB companies in the first half of the year are: epidemic prevention and control, Sino-US trade friction, 5G construction slowdown, communication market demand adjustment, major raw material prices and supply Tension, exchange rate changes... In addition, many large PCB manufacturers have increased their depreciation and amortization expenses due to expansion of production lines, adjustment of product structure, and implementation of production line upgrades, which also affected company profits to a certain extent.
But it is undeniable that the increase in raw material prices is one of the important reasons for the decline in the profitability of PCB manufacturing companies. The main raw materials for printed circuit boards include copper clad laminates, copper balls, copper foil, prepregs, and gold salts. Since April 2020, domestic copper prices have fluctuated upwards, and the first half of this year even hit a new high in recent years.

As the main cost component of PCB, copper clad laminates account for about 30% of the cost of PCB materials. Since the second half of last year, driven by the three major upstream materials and driven by demand recovery, prices have continued to rise. According to reports, leading copper clad laminate companies have raised their quotations by more than 10% in April and June in the second quarter of this year. The current prices of different companies are 200-240 yuan per square meter, close to historical highs, and have a huge impact on PCB manufacturing companies.
Looking back, we find that copper clad laminate manufacturers are also under pressure from the continuous price increase of upstream raw materials.
The three major raw materials of copper clad laminate business, copper foil, epoxy resin, and glass fiber, have all continued to rise this year. As of May, electronic copper foil has risen by 60% since the low point in 2020; driven by downstream demand and insufficient supply, the price of electronic fiberglass cloth has risen from the low price of about 3.7 yuan/meter in the first half of 2020 to 7.2 The price of epoxy resin is nearly doubled at around RMB/m. However, epoxy resin has been affected by the rush to install and the cold wave in the United States caused by the government’s wind power replenishment. It is approaching 34,000 yuan/ton, which undoubtedly puts pressure on downstream CCL manufacturers again.
Recently, listed manufacturers of copper clad laminates have successively released semi-annual reports. The profits of PCB Kingboard laminates and PCB multilayer laminates have increased significantly year-on-year.