Electronic Manufacturing

Growth within the ECM business had been booming, which is one of the main reasons many new companies entered this market during the last few years. A slowdown occurred in the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009, however, due to the global recession, which affected all of the players in the electronics contract manufacturing industry, particularly the companies that entered the business in 2005 and afterward.  The global market for Electronics Contract Manufacturing And Design Services was valued at $410 billion in 2011, and is projected to reach $435 billion in 2013 and $670 billion in 2018, a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9% from 2013-2018.

Executives of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE) and Siliconware Precision Industry Co., Ltd. estimated their business for next quarter would surge in spite of low season thanks to a series of new products coming along.

According to a new technical market research report, the global market for conformal coating materials was valued at $7.9 billion in 2011, and is projected to reach $8.5 billion in 2012, and $8.9 billion in 2017, a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1%. The conformal coating market can be split into two segments: conformal coating equipment and spares, and conformal coating materials. The equipment and spares segment should hold a value of $6.7 billion in 2012; by 2017, however, the segment is expected to decrease in value to $6.3 billion, yielding a CAGR of -1.2%.

Rigid PCB shipments were down 1.9 percent in May 2012 from May 2011, but bookings increased 12.0 percent year over year. Year to date, rigid PCB shipments decreased 5.0 percent and bookings increased 3.1 percent. Compared to the previous month, rigid PCB shipments were up 2.0 percent and rigid bookings gained 1.9 percent. The book-to-bill ratio for the North American rigid PCB industry in May 2012 remained above parity at 1.02. Flexible circuit shipments in May 2012 were down 10.0 percent, and bookings were down 1.1 percent compared to May 2011. Year to date, flexible circuit shipments decreased 9.1 percent and bookings decreased 2.1 percent. Compared to the previous month, flexible circuit shipments decreased 2.6 percent, but flex bookings were up 19.8 percent. The North American flexible circuit book-to-bill ratio remained high at 1.17.

Both Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) saw their revenues for May hit new highs of NT$44.1 billion (US$1.5 billion at US$1:NT$29) and NT$9.2 billion (US$317 million), respectively.  TSMC, currently the world's No.1 pure silicon foundry, projects its revenue for the second quarter at NT$126-128 billion (US$4.3-4.4 billion), an increase of 19.42-21.3% from NT$105.5 billion (US$3.6 billion) of the first quarter. Based on the projection, the company's revenue for June should reach over NT$41.3 billion (US$1.4 billion).

A growing number of designers and manufacturers are facing complex challenges as chip speeds skyrocket while system sizes diminish. This evolution is forcing companies to look closely at every nuance of a design to ensure that products meet performance and reliability requirements. More development teams are turning to flexible circuits as more functions are crammed into portable products and other small systems. Using thin substrates brings benefits even when these substrates don't need to flex.

Hon Hai Group, the world's biggest EMS (electronic manufacturing service) provider by output headquartered in Taiwan, recently bought a majority stake in Sharp of Japan, as headlined in a news report in Taipei on March 27, whose move aims to better compete against Korean rivals with 10th generation fabrication lines in the short term, as well as acquire any technological advantages owned by the Japanese maker of home appliances as TVs.

While aggressively venturing into the medical device market by launching intelligent healthcare solutions for medical institutes in recent years, Advantech has also tapped into China`s medical sales channels through partnerships with major global brands as Philips and GE. Advantech says that its medical-application business is basically categorized into two major lines: The first being the original design manufacturing (ODM) of intelligent medical equipment for customers who introduce system software to sell finished products via distributors, by supplying, for examples, ultrasonic and X-ray equipment to GE and anesthetic equipment to Philips.

The worldwide industrial electronics assembly market is one of the most interesting and profitable segments for EMS companies to engage in. While growth of the total available industrial market is modest (between 5-6% annually), the growth of the EMS services sector is more than double depending on the product. Some of the most promising opportunities can be found in the Test & Measurement and Process Control sectors where advanced electronics are making a huge impact in efficiency and cost reduction.

Flexible circuits are a bright spot when it comes to growth for printed circuit boards, but the overall market is still small compared to rigd boards. Printed electronics may change those volumes significantly by bringing dramatically lower costs that could open up extremely high volume markets.