The PCB industry is in turmoil again, and the order scheduling problem needs to be solved urgently

The changes in the PCB industry have already begun at the beginning of 2021.

Under the influence of many factors such as the epidemic and the trade war, the PCB industry also experienced a series of tests last year. However, under the changes brought about by 5G communication technology, based on the effectiveness of domestic epidemic prevention and control, coupled with the demand for non-mobile phone market applications such as NB, tablets, wearable devices and the development of new energy vehicles driven by the stay-at-home economy, the development of the PCB industry has been given new impetus.

Based on this, with the surge in demand, the price increase of PCB raw materials has led to the postponement of the scheduling of new orders, especially for HDI and FPC in the mid-to-high-end field. For the PCB industry, the impact of the price increase last year may last for a long time, and the exact impact is still unknown.

Order growth and longer schedules

"The order demand for products related to the stay-at-home economy and new energy vehicles has increased significantly. The order delivery period has been extended from the original half-month period to one and a half months, and some orders have been scheduled to the second quarter." An industry insider told Jiwei.com.

Recently, many PCB manufacturers have been worried about the delivery time of orders, and some manufacturers' production lines have been running at full capacity. Earlier, there was news that some orders in the HDI high-density interconnect field have been scheduled until March, and orders for small-pitch light boards have been scheduled until June. 

However, the problem of order scheduling has not been solved, which has brought pressure to many manufacturers. Coupled with the price increase and production capacity issues in the raw materials link, it is even more "adding insult to injury".

After the price of copper clad laminates has increased several times in the past three months, its production capacity shortage has also begun to occur frequently. According to data, since Q4 last year, the price of copper clad laminates has increased by 25%-30%, and the delivery time has also been extended to 8-10 days.

"It is undeniable that after experiencing multiple raw material price increases last year, this year's raw material price increases and shortages are still not optimistic, and the impact on order scheduling will continue," the industry insider added.

At present, HDI is widely used in many fields such as mobile phones, laptops, automotive electronics, PCs, and military industries, and the demand is relatively large. Especially driven by 5G technology, mobile phones, base stations, servers, and network communication products are showing high growth.

At present, among the domestic PCB manufacturers, those capable of mass production of HDI above level 3 include Ultrasonic Electronics, Founder Technology, Jingwang Electronics, Zhongjing Electronics, Chongda Technology, and Bomin Electronics. As demand grows rapidly, their scheduling situation may become more severe.

HDI/FPC demand continues to grow

With the development of 5G technology, smartphones are moving towards highly integrated chips, more complex modules, and a significant increase in the number of components. AnyLayer HDI motherboards have gradually become the mainstream solution for Android terminal brands, accelerating the share of HDI in mobile phone applications.

According to market data, mobile phone-related applications account for as much as 70% of the overall HDI market.

However, under the influence of the epidemic last year, industry insiders said: "The peak period for orders for mobile phone consumption occurred from April to July, and it was coming to an end in the third quarter. After that, more than 50% of the orders tended to be from industries such as network communications, education and smart home appliances. The demand for HDI in NB, tablets, wearable devices, etc. increased, and mainstream HDI manufacturers experienced a surge in orders one after another."

By the fourth quarter of last year, HDI's production capacity was almost fully loaded, with orders scheduled until around the Spring Festival of 2021, mainly due to the introduction of HDI by terminal manufacturers such as OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi.

Recently, Zhongjing Electronics, a major PCB manufacturer, said in an investigation that the company's existing Huizhou PCB manufacturing base (mainly producing HDI and multilayer boards) and Zhuhai Yuansheng (mainly producing FPC and FPCA) have full orders and high capacity utilization, among which the order schedule for HDI and FPC products is even tighter.

Jingwang Electronics stated that the Zhuhai high-rise and multi-layer factory will be put into production while under construction, and it is expected that 75,000 square meters/month of high-rise and multi-layer production capacity will be released by the end of this year; the Zhuhai high-end HDI factory will be put into production in the second quarter of this year, and it is expected to release 20,000 square meters/month of production capacity.

In addition, Bomen Electronics also stated on the interactive platform that the product system with HDI products as the core accounts for more than 50% of the company's sales, and is showing an increasing trend year by year, becoming an important driving force for the growth of the company's main business revenue, and is widely used in various fields such as consumer electronics, communications and automotive electronics.