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Out of stock and price increase are hot keywords in the electronics industry recently. Right now, this wave of price increases is about to burn into the PCB industry.
The reason for the price increase of PCB board
PCB industry insiders said that due to the outbreak of the new energy automobile market, the supply of copper foil has been tight, the price of copper foil itself has risen, and copper foil manufacturers have turned to the field of battery supporting supply, resulting in a shortage of copper foil for copper clad laminates, prompting copper clad laminates Follow the price increase.
The continued popularity of the lithium battery market has led to a substantial increase in the demand for upstream lithium battery copper foil. In 2015, there was a gap in supply and demand. Some domestic and foreign copper foil suppliers transferred part or all of their production capacity from PCB copper foil to lithium battery copper foil. However, the expansion of lithium battery copper foil production capacity is relatively lagging, and the contradiction between supply and demand may last for 1-2 years. In this context, the supply of PCB copper foil has dropped sharply, unable to meet the downstream CCL and PCB production needs, and the price has entered an upward cycle, which is transmitted to the copper clad laminate (CCL). Some CCL suppliers have issued price increase notices to downstream customers.
Copper foil supplier switched to lithium battery industry
At present, the two most widely used industries of copper foil are mainly in the lithium battery market and the PCB copper clad laminate market. Due to the large difference in production equipment and processes between lithium battery copper foil and PCB standard copper foil, the profit of lithium battery copper foil is much higher than that of PCB standard copper foil, so many copper foil manufacturers are more willing to transfer copper foil to the lithium battery industry.
It is reported that Taiwan’s Nanya, Changchun, Jinju, Japan’s Mitsui, Furukawa, South Korea’s Nissin, LSM, and China’s copper crown copper foil, Lingbao Huaxin, Qinghai Electronics, Jiangxi Copper, United Copper Foil and other copper foil supply Commercial companies have plans to switch production of lithium battery copper foil, and the total monthly production capacity of the above-mentioned suppliers to switch lithium battery copper foil is about 8,600 tons/month.
The large demand for lithium battery copper foil has led to a shortage of copper foil, the main raw material of copper clad laminates, and price increases. The current global copper foil production capacity is designed at 40,150 tons/month, slightly lower than the total downstream demand of 43,050 tons/month. In the downstream application field of copper foil, the demand for copper foil from CCL is the largest, about 26,000 tons per month, and the demand for copper foil for PCB+FPC+FCCL is about 8,000 tons per month.
The copper foil market is in short supply, making the PCB industry worse
Under the circumstance that the total production capacity of copper foil manufacturers remains unchanged, after switching to lithium battery copper foil (the current plan to transfer lithium is 8600 tons/month), the supply of PCB copper foil will be sharply reduced, and the downstream CCL and PCB production needs cannot be met.
It is estimated that by 2018, the demand for copper foil for lithium batteries will increase by 200%-300%, and the expansion rate of copper foil production capacity is 4%-5%, which cannot meet the demand for copper foil from the lithium battery industry and peripheral products, and will further lead to other industries. In particular, CCL's copper foil supply and demand are unbalanced, which in turn causes the corresponding copper foil supply price to rise.
Copper foil occupies 30% (thick copper clad laminate)-50% (thin copper clad laminate) of the CCL material cost of copper clad laminates, and copper clad laminates account for about 40% of PCB production costs. The continuous rise in upstream copper foil prices will be transmitted to the copper clad laminate industry and PCB industry.
PCB Factory: Rising and suffering
Upstream prices increase, downstream complaints continue. In recent years, competition in the PCB industry has been fierce. According to previous reports, the average gross profit margin of China's PCB industry is around 15%-18%. It can be said that the PCB industry has become a veritable Red Sea market.
Earlier, I heard that upstream prices have increased. In order to avoid being affected by the price increase, some powerful manufacturers have begun to stock up large quantities of materials. At first, almost all PCB manufacturers gritted their teeth and did not raise prices, but later determined that there is no possibility of a fall in the market in the near future. Faced with the pressure of rising upstream materials and the few remaining margins, some PCB manufacturers can only loose their teeth and announce that they will continue to rise. .
Supply chain manufacturers screamed: Increasing prices may lose customers, but if you don't increase prices, you may lose your life!
The industry believes that in such an environment, it is not advisable to fight a price war. It is even more impractical to reduce the quality with cheap materials. At this time, what the company has to do is to improve product quality and comprehensive strength, "the big waves will wash away the sand, and the true nature of gold will be shown", and eventually stay or win new opportunities.
Data shows that the total output value of the global PCB industry last year was 55.3 billion U.S. dollars. Affected by the slowdown in the growth of personal computers, smartphones and other products in the world's major electronics industries, as well as inventory adjustments and other factors, the output value of the PCB industry fell by 3.7% year-on-year. However, driven by new demands such as automotive intelligence, the agency predicts that from 2016 to 2021, the global PCB industry will usher in recovery growth, with a compound annual growth rate of around 2.3%. With the application of higher-end electronic and communication technologies in the automotive industry, automotive PCB products (automotive boards) have become the fastest growing field in the industry in recent years.
