A Two-Team Race?
周丽淇个人资料>what i wantPublished: 01 August 2014
by Dr. Hayao Nakahara
陶喆徒弟For the world’s top PCB manufacturers, Apple and Samsung can make (or break) you.陈学冬父母
For those who believe nothing changes in printed circuits, think back just 16 years to the first edition of the NTI-100. The biggest names in PCB manufacturing included Photocircuits, Lucent and Hadco, among others. TTM was just being incorporated. The US and Japan were battling for worldwide bare board supremacy. Taiwan was a relative newcomer, China an after-thought.
Every year brings changes, even if the overlying trend remains the same.
2013 was no exception. Many changes took place, particularly among Japanese PCB manufacturers. Domestic production value plunged 15% in 2013 from the previous year. One reason: The average exchange rate in 2013 was 100 yen/USD, while it was 80
yen/USD in 2010-2012, a 15% depreciation. As a result, several Japanese makers dropped off the list, as the minimum revenue to be ranked is $100 million.
There were mergers and acquisitions during the course of 2013, such as Kyocera acquiring Toppan-NEC Circuit Solutions (the new name is Kyocera Circuit Solutions, or Kyocera CS for short) and ISU-Petasys acquiring Trendtronics in Hunan Province, and changing its name to TTL. Although the total revenue by top makers increased in 2013, the number of entries on the list decreased. As usual, any errors that may exist are strictly the responsibility of the author.
Data collection. There are close to 2,800 PCB manufacturers worldwide, though this number seems to be changing (read: decreasing) almost daily. Of those 2,800, approximately 640 fabricators worldwide were examined, from which those with revenues equal to or greater than $100 million were identified. Most large Taiwan makers are publicly traded and publish “consolidated” revenues every month. Revenues of some rigid PCB makers include sales of assembled boards. In such cases, the assembly portion (PCBA) was eliminated as much as possible, although it may be possible that in some instances not completely. Some listed manufacturers are part of other stock-listed manufacturers, yet separately listed, which made it challenging to avoid double counts.
Most large flexible circuit board (FPC) makers are engaged in assembly operations (FPCA), and their reports include mixed revenues, bare board and assembly (cost of assembly and components). Their bare board portion ranges from 40 to 80% typically, depending on their customer mix. It is not
possible to separate the bare board portion accurately when considering FPC makers, and therefore, in those cases no attempt was made to eliminate assembly value. If an attempt is made to “guess” the bare board portion, gross errors are likely to occur. Hence, strictly speaking, the ranking table presented in this report does not reflect a fair comparison, but this cannot be helped. Judgment is left to the readers.
The revenues of most publicly traded manufacturers are easily identified. However, some listed makers do not identify the PCB portions clearly. Sumitomo Denko, Hitachi Chemical, Multek, Sanmina, 3M and several others, which belong to large corporations, do not break out PCB revenues. The author’s private communications with those companies helped determine reasonably accurate numbers. In the case of 3M, its revenue is a pure guess, as every year.
The author would like to express his gratitude to those makers that shared revenue data and also to two trade organizations, TPCA and CPCA, for their valuable assistance.
Exchange rates. Readers are reminded that slight variations of exchange rates sometimes make big differences in ranking. Some Chinese makers presented their revenues to the author in US dollars without disclosing the exchange rate used. It turned out that each one used slightly different exchang
e rates; the converted revenues were adjusted according to the RMB/USD exchange rate shown in the table. Some revenue reports included the 17% VAT, which had to be eliminated.电竞公交车
In order to baseline growth rates, 2012 revenues were adjusted to 2013 exchange rates.
Taiwanese Stock Exchange-listed manufacturers report consolidated revenues to the TSE every month. Some manufacturers report revenues in US dollars every month in their financial columns, and at the end of each year indicate total revenue in USD, which is the sum of 12-month revenues, each month converted to USD with a “monthly” average exchange rate. The result is slightly different from 12-month revenue in NTD in local currency converted to USD using “average yearly” exchange rate. The author chose to convert yearly revenue with average yearly exchange rate.
Table 1 shows the average exchange rates used to convert revenues in local currencies to US dollars. In 2013, the yen fell 25% in value against the US dollar.
TABLE 1. Currency Exchange Rates
2013 trends. The NTI-100 list  presents an interesting picture. Broken down by region, the list reveals many things (Table 2). The 99 PCB manufacturers with revenues greater than $100 million, for instance, accounted for 84% of the total world production of $60 billion.
TABLE 2.NTI-100 by Region
It is said that approximately 20% of semiconductor devices are consumed by two smartphone makers: Samsung Electronics and Apple. Since the value of a given PCB is about 20% of semiconductor usage, it may not be an exaggeration to say that these two smartphone giants consumed about 20% of the total PCB output.
Generally speaking, those PCB makers that supplied to Samsung (many Korean nationals) and Apple did well in 2013, despite the fact that average selling price (ASP) plunged tremendously. The price plunge was compensated by volume increases. However, while profits
have seemed to decrease continuously the past few years, fabricators continue to increase production capacity, inviting further price erosion. This is a vicious cycle. Newcomers and those with expanded capacity tend to offer lower prices, sometimes just to cover depreciation costs. In turn, OEM customers do not have to relentlessly pressure their PCB suppliers for price concessions. Instead, the competition triggers further price erosion, particularly in technology-oriented products such as 10-layer “any-layer” products. Technology is not necessarily a guarantee for better profit. As a matter of fact, single-sided boards, considered low tech, bring better profits.
PCB makers for media tablets also did well. These fabricators typically supply boards for smartphones. Smartphones and tablets use a large number of wireless chips. Hence, IC substrate suppliers (such as Kinsus of Taiwan) to chipmakers Qualcomm and MediaTek, two leaders in wireless chips, excelled.
免费手机铃声排行榜Automotive PCB is another hot area. The barrier to entry is high, but once a PCB maker is certified, fairly steady growth of 5 to 6% annually is possible. The author estimates the total automotive PCB market is close to $5 billion annually (about 8% of worldwide PCB production) and is increasing faster than the rate of automobile shipments, as more electronics are adopted for automobiles, particularly in the area of “infotainment,” for safety and driving information.
TABLE 3.Top 10 Automotive PCB Makers in 2013
Select makers. Some PCB manufacturers may not be familiar to readers, although simple explanations are attached for each listing. It is best to explain each one in the NTI-100 Table 4, but not practical due to limited space. The choice of makers is purely random, and the selection is in descending order of revenue.
TABLE 4.The NTI-100 World’s Top PCB Makers in 2013 ($ millions)
It is well-known which fabricators supply to Apple and Samsung (and Continental, Bosch and Denso, etc.), although some firms forbid their suppliers to mention their association. It is rather comical to know that “Apple” is not to be mentioned in Japan among suppliers. It is referred as “B” company or “Banana” company there and as “Fruit” company in Taiwan and China. Apple and Samsung may not like to see their names on the list, but they are mentioned so readers can see why some fabricators grew or declined in 2013.
PC and TV shipments continued to decline in 2013, and hence PCB makers that supply to these two markets generally saw reduced revenue. Digital still camera (DSC) shipments have been declining 15% to 20% in the past few years, its function being taken over by smartphones. As a result, those HDI board makers that supply to this market experienced revenue decline.
At the time of this writing, suppliers of infrastructure boards in China are very busy because of the TD-CDMA 4G LTE introduction in China, which requires tens of thousands of base stations. This will change the 2014 map.
It is commonly understood that for a mature market, 80% of the revenue is in the hands of 20% of suppliers. Insofar as the PCB market is concerned, this rule does not apply. Instead, roughly 5% of t
he companies own 90% of the market. The big get bigger and faster. Nippon Mektron is the No. 1 maker for the third time, and the second in a row. It is said that more than 80% of its revenue is now obtained from overseas production.
Young Poong Group consists of Interflex, Young Poong Electronics, Korea Circuit and Terranics. Interflex has a branch factory in Tianjing, China. YPG’s FPC portion was $1.7 billion in 2013, assembly included of course.
Unimicron includes Ruwel AG, Clover Electronics and Subtron. It has been building a PCB complex in Jining, Shandong Province, China, and has MOU with the city of Huang Xi, Hubei Province, where Wus is building a plant.
Zhen Ding Technology is one of the largest FPC suppliers to Apple. A strong association with Apple is natural since its parent, Foxconn, is the largest contract manufacturer of various Apple products.
SEMCO (Samsung Electro-Mechanics) is expanding HDI operations in Kunshan, China, by building a second factory.
Ibiden is pouring $400 million into its second Penang plant for HDI expansion and also expanding its
Beijing plant to cope with increasing layer counts. Although Ibiden had a revenue decline, its profits improved in 2013.
Tripod has been emphasizing HDI boards and automotive PCB in recent years. Its Xiantao plant built on 870,000 sq. m has been partially operational and continues to expand.
Sumitomo Denko Printed Circuit has grown strong rapidly by supplying FPC (assembled) to Apple. It is rumored that half of its revenue comes from Apple contracts. Its overseas production now far exceeds domestic volume.
TTM Technologies sold shares in Shengyi Electronics and bought back shares of Shengyi Electronics at its Dongguang Meadville Circuits. Its Shanghai Meadville Technology-Silicon Platform plant (seven stories) is being equipped and will commence operation. Although the former Meadville Technology is now called TTM Asia Pacific, individual plants seem to retain the original names, which is normal in China, due to the complexity of changing “Chinese” names.
Daeduck Group underwent major organizational changes early this year. Its IC substrate subsidiary, APERIO, is now a part of Daeduck Electronics. HDI, FPC and rigid-flex circuit (RFC) operations are now placed under Daeduck GDS.
Nanya PCB recovered from its loss of Intel business. Although IC substrate is the largest product line of Nanya PCB, it has been expanding into the automotive arena as well in recent years.
Compeq Manufacturing has been growing steadily the past several years. In 2013, its revenue exceeded $1 billion. (Congratulations! You are now a member of the NTI $1 Billion Club.) The company supplies boards for the iPad, iPod, iMac and iPhone. It is also strong in the IT business. Phase 1 of a new plant in Chongqing is ready to commence production at any time. It also operates an assembly business in Suzhou.