PCB News - Market demand analysis of flexible circuit board industry

With the continuous development of the intelligent equipment manufacturing industry, the global output value of flexible circuit boards (FPC) reached 13.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2016. The application field of FPC involves almost all electronic information products, covering the three largest application fields of consumer electronics, communication equipment, and automotive products. Although the growth rate of such products is limited, they will maintain long-term growth.

Mobile phones have become an indispensable part of human daily life in modern society, and FPC is also an indispensable part of mobile phones. Generally speaking, each mobile phone roughly needs 6 FPCs, which are used to connect the display to the motherboard. The camera head is connected to the main board, the rotating part of the rotating mobile phone is connected to the main board, the flip part of the flip-type mobile phone is connected to the main board, LED light source, keyboard, etc. As the global mobile phone demand continues to grow steadily in the future, the FPC market space for mobile phones is very broad.

In recent years, the proportion of FPC boards in the PCB industry has steadily increased, and by 2015 it has exceeded 35%. However, the scale of Chinese local enterprises is relatively small, and there is still a lot of gap between the enterprises and the world's advanced level in terms of products, technology and management.

As labor costs continue to rise and the robotic revolution in major European and American countries has forced the upgrading of China's manufacturing industry, China's FPC manufacturing industry is facing major technological innovation challenges and needs to introduce large-scale automated production lines to comprehensively improve the automation level of the industry.

China's PCB industry is mainly distributed in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and other areas where electronic technology products are more developed. They enjoy unique advantages in terms of geography, talents, and economic environment, and are currently in the stage of industrial upgrading. PCB mid- and low-end products are gradually shifting to other regions in the mainland, while high-end products and high value-added products continue to be concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. In the future, the domestic PCB industry is likely to form the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta as high-end PCB manufacturing and equipment and material research and development bases; a two-hour economic industrial belt led by the world's top 500 electronics companies along the Yangtze River; and Dalian in the north as the leader The Bohai Bay Economic Circle; and the industrial structure of the Northwest Guangdong Processing Zone after the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge was opened to traffic.

Section 1 Demand Analysis

1. Demand market of flexible circuit board industry

FPC, as a substrate and key interconnection for electronic parts, covers a wide range of downstream industries, involving general consumer electronics, information, communications, medical, optoelectronics, and even aerospace products. With the development of science and technology, the demand for electronic information processing of various products is gradually increasing, and new products continue to emerge, which makes the use and market of FPC products continue to expand. zui In recent years, with the advent of the information age, under the background of the pursuit of light, thin, short, and small designs in consumer electronics, FPC applications have expanded to new areas, including smart phones, tablet computers, notebook computers, and digital Miniaturized terminal electronic products such as cameras, car satellite orientation devices, LCD screens, etc. In the future, with the rise of wearable smart devices, FPC products are highly compatible with wearable devices due to their light, thin, flexible and other characteristics. They will become the standard for wearable device circuit boards and will greatly benefit from wearable intelligence. The vast market space brought by the equipment.

Second, the customer structure of the flexible circuit board industry

At present, the leading FPC companies in the industry can carry out personalized design and integration according to the material and thickness of the substrate, the size and accuracy of the line width and line spacing required by the customer, the product structure and other special requirements specified by the customer, combined with their own technical characteristics. Production. As technology advances and the speed of product upgrades continues to increase, companies that do not have certain technical strength and lack technical reserves will not be able to adapt to the development of the market.

FPC downstream customers are usually large consumer electronics manufacturers such as display screens, touch screens, smart phones, tablet computers, etc. Choosing appropriate accessory suppliers is an important deployment of the development strategy of these large electronics manufacturers.

FPC's main customers: Apple, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, IBM, Dell, HP, Philips, LG, Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and other large international electronic product manufacturers.

3. Regional differences in demand for the flexible circuit board industry

In terms of industrial layout, the current demand for flexible circuit board products is mainly concentrated in Asia, including China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Europe and North America are the other two markets that are only in the Asian market. Domestically, the demand for flexible circuit boards is mainly concentrated in the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Rim. These three economic circles not only have developed electronic manufacturing industries, but are also gathering places for many flexible circuit board manufacturers. It has convenient geographical conditions.

Section 2 Supply Analysis

China's FPC industry started in the 1970s. After more than 40 years of growth, the overall level of the industry and the scale and strength of the company have achieved rapid development. According to the statistics of China Printed Circuit Industry Association (CPCA), the output of FPC in China was 250,000 square meters in 1998, and the output value was about RMB 50 million. Since 1999, China's FPC industry has begun to develop rapidly. Up to now, China has become the world's largest FPC producer.