PCB News - ​Two rounds of price increases for PCB boards?

For many small and medium-sized PCB factories, because there is no excess funds to prepare the goods in advance, at the end of last year, customers came to discuss price reductions, but the upstream material suppliers again called for the increase. The rice was too expensive to be sold, 1-2 This month is the peak period of downstream PCB shipments, and the number of restricted working days is reduced. Printed circuit board factories may not be able to deliver on time after the year. In fact, in recent years, the prices of plates and raw materials have been declining, and the demand has increased year by year, which has also caused many PCB companies to be squeezed out of the market due to price wars.

The CEO of a company in the industry said frankly, "Copper clad laminate manufacturers have changed their habit of paying only three to five months after the arrival of the goods. When purchasing copper foil with cash, the price of copper foil has risen by 20 to 30%, and you have to wait in line. Orders are supplied in limited quantities." Board transactions generally take 90 days to half a year. After the demand for lithium battery copper foil appears, some manufacturers use cash to buy materials, which indirectly leads to vicious competition in price increases. The development of the PCB circuit board industry is 30 days It has never happened in many years.

Copper foil has been in short supply in the past year. In March last year, the largest and most influential copper clad laminate manufacturer, Kingboard, first issued a price increase notice, and other board manufacturers followed suit, stimulating the upstream and downstream supply chains to be comprehensive. follow up.

The shortage of copper foil supply also drives the rapid rise of other raw materials. There is news from the industry that the fiberglass cloth, another main material of CCL, may rise to 7 yuan/meter, and the cumulative increase of aluminum substrates and light guide plates is about 20%. FR- 4 The cumulative increase has exceeded 40%, and the increase of plastic plates and plastic parts has exceeded 10%, and even the cartons used for loading also have cash transactions.

Copper foil and CCL manufacturers make big profits, PCB board manufacturers complain

In the past few years, the copper foil processing price was competing with each other and competing for price reductions, resulting in frequent losses at the break-even point or below, causing some domestic and foreign copper foil production companies to go bankrupt, shut down or switch to production, leading to the concentration of the copper foil industry. The degree is further improved.

Manufacturers of printed circuit boards generally light up red lights. Not long ago, a certain domestic circuit board factory was in a financial dilemma because of this. Previously, this circuit board factory placed orders to buy materials as usual. As the processing fee for electrolytic copper per ton soared from 18,000 yuan to 36,000 yuan, the material supplier was notified that the previous payment of more than 20 million yuan must be paid before it can continue to purchase materials. After the board factory relentlessly borrowed loan sharks to pay back the payment, it was notified that an advance payment was required to place an order. After some tossing, I finally entered the link of placing an order, but found that I had to wait in line to wait for the quota. At this time, the company's capital chain was on the verge of breaking.

Because PCB downstream customers are relatively strong, except for a few board manufacturers that have made small price increases, most board manufacturers have not smoothly passed on the increased costs to downstream customers, because PCB downstream customers generally have a large amount of material inventory. In order to alleviate the financial pressure, some board manufacturers have begun to extend the delivery period for PCB equipment vendors and PCB processing plants (such as PCB electroplating processing plants, PCB tin spray processing plants, etc.).

As a result, PCB equipment vendors and PCB processing plants are affected, and life also becomes sad. Some small PCB processing plants were under pressure and closed down.

Although the price of copper foil is getting higher and higher, the copper foil factories are still busy with the market. Many plate vendors and plate manufacturers take cash to the copper foil factory to queue up for the goods, and they may not be able to return with the goods. The factory looks at the plate and sighs.

According to industry sources, many PCB companies that have a good relationship with copper clad laminate factories have stocked plates for two to three months. Some factories with a production capacity of only 20,000 to 30,000 have an inventory of about 100,000.

Difficult to expand production, when will the prices of copper foil and CCL increase and shortages will be closed?

Copper foil, copper clad laminate and PCB manufacturers have been struggling at the bottom for a long time. No one expected the emergence of lithium batteries for vehicles. This round of raw material rise cycle is so rapid and long-lasting. Lithium battery copper foil initiated.

The global electronic copper foil production capacity is 41,000 tons per month, of which more than 8,000 tons have been discontinued. Japanese companies withdrew and closed electronic copper foil factories as early as three years ago, and switched to producing copper foils for high-speed boards, copper foils for high-frequency, copper foils for packaging, and copper foils for soft boards. In the entire supply chain, about 12,000 tons of electronic copper foil is gone. At present, whether it is a new copper foil enterprise or an old copper foil enterprise, all the expansions they have carried out are all around the expansion of lithium batteries.

In fact, as another main material of CCL-electronic grade glass fiber cloth, these years have been in a state of unprofitable or loss-making, causing some electronic grade glass fiber cloth factories to stop or reduce production. Recently, it has been learned that many domestic and foreign companies producing electronic grade glass fiber cloth are shutting down production and repairing furnaces, and the maintenance cycle of a furnace is about half a year, which indicates that the supply of electronic grade glass fiber cloth will also drop sharply in the near future., Followed by must be the price increase of electronic grade glass fiber cloth.

If considering factors such as CCL and PCB companies generally increasing inventory levels and hoarding goods, the supply of copper foil will be even more tight.

It is reported that the order of copper foil production equipment for new energy vehicles to provide lithium battery copper foil has been arranged in the second half of 2017. It is estimated that CCL and PCB manufacturers will have to suffer at least one and a half to two years due to the shortage of copper foil. Two or three years later, it is likely that some copper foil manufacturers will return to CCL and PCB due to fierce competition in lithium batteries for new energy vehicles.

Raw materials continue to rise, how does the PCB industry break through?

The price of electronic copper foil remains high, and the increase should be modest. At present, most PCB board factories have started construction after the year. Although the supply of raw materials is more tight, the production of new energy vehicles has entered the off-season. Some copper foil factories have transferred their production capacity back to the PCB market. Some PCB factories have prepared in advance and actually supply It's not that nervous.

In fact, the plate price only accounts for about 1/3 of the total PCB price, and the copper foil price has a far greater impact on the plate price than the PCB price. The PCB market is in a long-term vicious competition. The product growth rate of leading manufacturers is actually not high, but It was the first price increase for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Most of the small and medium-sized PCB board factories do not have enough cash to hoard sheet materials, the procurement cycle is extremely short, the sheet material rises, and the demand for cash increases, resulting in a tight capital chain. Because of the small output, its profit is also most affected by the price of the plate. These two points made small and medium-sized PCB board factories suffer from the price increase of plates, so they were the first to send out price increases, which led to the loss of orders.

The increase in the price of raw materials has eliminated some manufacturers, but it is conducive to large companies with sufficient funds to obtain more customers and further concentrate the industry to regulate the market. Because when there is a demand for sheet material procurement, they have stronger bargaining power and the right to demand delivery in the face of upstream suppliers than similar manufacturers, and further control costs and maintain the smooth supply of materials.

With the strong demand in the major electronic market segments such as new energy vehicles, mobile phones, small-pitch LEDs, and communication base stations, the PCB industry market is gradually picking up. Circuit board manufacturers should seize this opportunity to continuously improve their own quality, keep improving, and increase yield. Only by reducing costs and avoiding vicious competition can we break through the encirclement.