China is expected to become the home field of the global PCB industry

Tuesday, January 23, 2018
PCB (printed circuit board) is the support of electronic components and electrical connection carrier, the global PCB industry output value accounted for more than a quarter of the total output value of electronic components industry, the scale of the industry reached 60 billion US dollars. Due to China's huge domestic market, and the advantages of lower labor costs and better  industrial supporting, the global PCB production capacity has been continually transferred to China from 2000. Since 2006, mainland China has surpassed Japan become the largest PCB manufacturer in the world. 
 
 

Domestic PCB products are moving from low-end to high-end.

Now, Chinese PCB industry has entered a period of steady development, the products are mainly concentrated in the cost advantage of low-end PCB. According to the market data compiled by the CSPC, in 2016, the market share of domestic hard boards and composite boards accounted for 13.0% and 3.7% respectively, while the market shares of 4, 6 and 8-16 boards accounted for Accounting for 19.1%, 13.5% and 10.4% respectively, while the sales volume of IC-Substrate, 18 layers board and above high layers board was relatively small, accounting for only 2.7% and 1.2% respectively. The market share of HDI boards and flexible boards was 16.5%, 17.1 % respectively. With the continuous improvement of China's PCB industry technology, product mix is ​​gradually optimized, The sales proportion of traditional product single/double layer(s) board and multilayer board is gradually reduced, the sales proportion of high-tech, high value-added HDI board, package substrate, flexible board and so on are continuously improving.
 
      

Emerging applications bring unlimited business opportunities for PCB.

On February 4th, 2017, NDRC published the Guiding Catalog for Key Emerging Products and Services in Strategic Emerging Industries (2016 Edition), which includes a new generation of information-based industries, high-end equipment manufacturing industries, new material industries, bio-industries and new energy sources industries, energy saving and environmental protection industries, digital creative industries, new energy automotive industries, including 5 major areas with 8 industries, involving nearly 4,000 subdivided products and services. Compared with the version of three years ago, the number of subdivided products and services increased by nearly 900. Among them, the artificial intelligence and digital creative industries entered the list of guiding directories for the first time. The sub-catalog of new energy vehicles has also been expanded from "pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles" to "new energy vehicle products", "charging, recharging and hydrogenation facilities, production testing equipment" these three items.
 
Now, the vehicles are moving toward to intelligent development, the automotive industry is expected to relay smart phones become the new smart terminal. With the continuous expansion of market share of electric vehicles, intelligent + new energy sources, making the use of electronic components in vehicles increased significantly. It will be an important market for PCB, but the automotive industry has high requirements for the safety and reliability of products.Therefore, the printed circuit board industry should make technology and production equipment well before the full blowout of smart vehicles and new energy vehicles.
 
According to the statistical report released by the MIIT Coordination Bureau in May, in the first quarter of this year, the overall operation of China's electronic information manufacturing industry continued the trend of steady growth since the second half of last year. Among them, the communications equipment industry maintained double-digit growth. In the first quarter alone, the output of smartphones reached 358.66 million units, increasing 11.4%; the production growth of computer industry continued to rise, with 39.03 million laptops, increasing 10%. These areas are usually the major demand for PCBs. According to the current consumer electronics market performance, smart phones, wearable, portable medical equipment, health equipment, etc. the big market capacity, product replacement fast, the product is becoming lighter, thinner and smaller. The PCB industry in dealing with these needs has been prepared well for technology and resources.
 
 
   
Smartphone                                                                Smartwatch                                                Battery for NEV
 
AI, big data and cloud computing are strategic emerging industries that are supported by the state. From the technical and technological requirements of the products, they belong to the high-end manufacturing category and have extremely high demands on PCB manufacturing equipment and personnel teams. This also provided a good opportunity to the transformation of PCB industry .
 
Nowadays, China has a huge market in many fields such as cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, new energy vehicles, smart cars, communications, consumer electronics, healthcare and wearable devices, which have created a great deal of new consumer demand. Specific to the PCB industry, as an integral part of the electronic system, the rapid development of these industries also bring unlimited business opportunities for the PCB industry. And this also proved from another side, why China's PCB output can occupy half of the world and will become the largest PCB supply base.
 

China is expected to become the home field of the global PCB industry

  
According to the latest China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the PMI for June 2017 was 51.7%, up 0.5% from the previous month and the manufacturing expansion accelerated. From the sub-index, among the five sub-indices that make up the manufacturing PMI, the production index and new order index are above the critical point. It indicates that China's manufacturing industry continues to grow and the manufacturing market demand steadily increases.
 
Specifically, the shift of the global electronics manufacturing industry chain to the Asia-Pacific region has led to PCB industry migrates to the east. Now the vast majority of PCBs in the world are produced in Asia. The specific distribution of PCB market is 50% in mainland China, 12.8% in Taiwan, 11.5% in South Korea and 9.7% in Japan in 2016. PCBs in these four Asian countries account for 84% of the world. According to the statistics of Prismark , from 2010 to 2015,the PCB output of China soared from USD19.971 billion to USD26.700 billion. In 2016, the market value of global PCB reached USD54.2 billion, down from the output of 2015. Leading by the continuous development of he global electronics and information industry in the future, the global PCB market in 2017 is expected to reach USD55.3 billion. And a considerable part of this output will fall into the hands of Chinese PCB company.
 
 
MIIT pointed out that the demand of critical application software and integrated solutions will rise when they analysis "the guide to the development of the information industry". During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, China will make efforts to develop software platforms and application systems based on new computing frameworks and application scenarios such as cloud computing, big data, mobile internet, and the Internet of Things. Telecommunications, transportation, education, health care, geographic information and others will be the key areas of development.
 
At present, at the talent pool the total manpower resources of manufacturing enterprises is 85.89 million,the number of professionals is 8.09 million in China. The Guide to Planning Development of Manufacturing Industry jointly issued by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology mentions that a pattern of human resources construction compatible with the needs of the development of the manufacturing industry should be formed and cultivated And to create a sufficient number of well-structured, high-quality, dynamic manufacturing personnel by 2020. At present, the total manpower resources of enterprises above designated size in China's equipment manufacturing industry are nearly 17.94 million. According to incomplete statistics, the total number of talents is nearly 7.36 million. The number of personnel with undergraduate and postgraduate education respectively accounts for 29% and 2%. As more efforts are devoted to the construction of traditional manufacturing industries, there will be a large number of professionals in advanced design, key manufacturing processes, materials, digital modeling and simulation, industrial control and automation, industrial cloud services and big data applications.
 
Comprehensive view, China has possessed all the conditions for the rapid development of the PCB industry, whether it is national policy support, market potential, industry accumulation, or talent pool. It has become a natural place for the global PCB industry to become a home.