PCB Tech - Overview of PCB circuit board Industry Chain

The upstream of the PCB industry chain is the raw materials for the production of various PCBs, mainly including copper clad laminates, copper foils, copper balls, prepregs, gold salts, inks, dry films and other chemical materials. The main raw materials for flexible circuit boards also include cover films, Electromagnetic film, etc. Midstream is a PCB manufacturer. The application areas of downstream PCB are very extensive, of which the three major areas of computer, communication electronics, and consumer electronics account for more than 68%, which directly affect the development of the upstream PCB industry.

The supply and price level of upstream raw materials determine the production cost of PCB companies. Changes in downstream industries will directly affect the demand and price level of printed circuit boards.

A wide range of downstream applications, driving the PCB market to pick up

01

Lightweight and thin demand for mobile phones and tablets drives the expansion of the FPC market

In the trend of intelligent, light and thin mobile electronic products, FPC has the advantages of high density, light weight, thin thickness, bending resistance, flexible structure, and high temperature resistance. New mobile phones from Apple and other manufacturers have significantly increased FPC usage. At present, the degree of localization of FPC is low, and the main output of FPC has always been occupied by manufacturers such as the United States, Japan, and Taiwan.

02

5G is approaching, high-density small base stations drive high-value-added PCB demand

According to the announcement of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's 5G network will be tested on a large scale in 2018, 5G network construction will be launched in 2019, and commercial services will be officially launched as soon as 2020. The 5G high frequency band means a smaller coverage radius. According to the China Industry Information Network, the number of 5G base stations will reach 14 million in 2024, which will drive the increase in PCB demand. 5G has higher requirements for PCB capacity and speed. Prismark estimates that China will invest 180 billion U.S. dollars in 5G infrastructure construction.

03

The high-end server market is growing rapidly, and the added value of PCB is increasing day by day

The new IT era marked by cloud computing and big data is driving changes in server technology and the market, and China's server market has maintained a double-digit growth rate. With the continuous development of high-speed, large-capacity, cloud computing, and high-performance servers, the design requirements for PCBs are constantly escalating, such as the number of high-rises, large size, high aspect ratio, high density, high-speed material applications, lead-free soldering applications, etc. .

04

The trend of automotive electronics is obvious, and the automotive PCB market will reach more than 100 billion yuan, and new energy vehicles are expected to drive the PCB market tens of billions of increments

With the development of intelligence, the electronic level of automobiles is increasing. There are more and more electronic devices used in driving control, vehicle condition display, and car entertainment systems, and automobile electronic devices account for an increasing proportion of the overall vehicle cost.

In 2017, the scale of China's automotive electronics market was 82.6 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 36% of the global automotive electronics market. It is expected that China's automotive electronics market will reach 110.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2019.

The process of banning the sale of fuel vehicles in major countries around the world has accelerated, and it has become a general trend for new energy vehicles to replace fuel vehicles. As one of the basic components of BMS, PCB board will also benefit from the development of new energy vehicles. According to the plan of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it is roughly estimated that the new energy vehicles corresponding to the PCB new market scale from 2018 to 2020 will be 2.85 billion yuan, 3.96 billion yuan, and 5.430 billion yuan.

Environmental protection supervision and automation drive, PCB industry concentration increased

Environmental supervision + new automated production capacity, domestic PCB backward production capacity will accelerate the withdrawal, leading manufacturers benefit from accelerated industry integration, and the concentration continues to increase:

Since 2017, environmental protection supervision has been strengthened, and many PCB industry chain manufacturers have received production restrictions and rectification. Leading companies have increased investment in production capacity with environmental protection indicators in their hands. Tighter environmental protection accelerates the industry's "large-scale and centralized" trend, and at the same time guides enterprises to deploy to the central region;

The overall process demand for electronic products has increased, and small factories have limited funds, making it difficult to upgrade and improve process technology;

Large PCB factories are actively expanding production. Under the trend of automation, operating advantages are significant, yield, gross profit margin, and supply chain cost control advantages continue to expand. The industry's higher bargaining power will continue to squeeze the space of small factories.