TPCA: The global soft board market will recover this year and next year, AI smart machines and PCs will play the key role
United News Network
August 16, 2024
Author: Economic Daily Reporter Yin Huizhong/Taipei Real Time Report
August 16, 2024
Author: Economic Daily Reporter Yin Huizhong/Taipei Real Time Report
The Taiwan Circuit Board Association issued a press release today, citing the latest "2024 Global FPC Industry Scanning and Development Trends" released by the Institute of Obstetrics and Technology of the Industrial Research Institute, predicting that the global FPC market in 2024 will gradually recover from the downturn in 2023, and the market size will be ( Including rigid-flex boards, the same below) is expected to reach US$19.7 billion, with an annual growth of 7.3%. With the gradual popularization of AI applications in the mobile phone and computer markets, the demand for soft boards is expected to continue to heat up. The soft board market is expected to grow by 5.2% in 2025, reaching US$20.72 billion, returning to the level of 2021. In addition, Zhending (4958), The stable market share of Taijun (6269) and other companies last year made Taiwanese companies the largest soft board supplier overall, accounting for about 34.5% of the overall output value.
The global FPC market has experienced significant fluctuations in the past few years. From 2020 to 2022, the COVID-19 epidemic has driven a surge in demand for consumer electronics products and promoted the rapid development of the FPC industry. However, with the fading of the epidemic dividend, terminal inventory adjustments, and global economic uncertainty, the global soft board market has experienced a significant decline in 2023, falling 7.9% from the previous year to a scale of US$18.36 billion.
The global flexible board market has generally shown steady growth in the past five years, with the market size growing from US$13.00 billion in 2019 to US$18.36 billion in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.9%. The proportion of global circuit board output value has also increased from 20.4% in 2019 to 24.6% in 2023.
Based on the funding type of manufacturers, Taiwanese companies are the largest FPC suppliers, accounting for about 34.5% of the overall output value, followed by Japan and China. Manufacturers from the three places collectively account for nearly 90% of the global FPC market. Looking at individual manufacturers, the top five soft board manufacturers in 2023 are Taiwanese Zhending (19.5%), Chinese mainland Dongshan Precision (14.4%), Japanese Mektron (14.0%), South Korean BH (6.7%), Taiwanese Changtai County (5.7%), the five companies together account for 60% of the global share.
Although the FPC market will decline in 2023 due to the impact of consumption contraction, most FPC manufacturers are still actively investing in capital expenditures to expand production capacity or upgrade technology to cope with future changes in market demand. In the future, the development of soft boards will still focus on mobile phones (including AI phones, foldable phones, etc.) and automotive applications (including car screens and battery soft boards, etc.). In terms of layout in Southeast Asia, compared to PCB hard board factories, flexible board factories mostly adopt a wait-and-see attitude towards overseas deployment.
FPC manufacturers currently planning to build factories in Southeast Asia include Taiwanese manufacturers Yijia, Yuanyu, and Zhending (mainly engaged in rigid board production), Japanese manufacturers Nitto Denko, China's Dongshan Precision, and South Korea's BH. The raw materials are Taiwan-funded Taihong Technology.
Overall, the agency analyzed that the FPC market in Southeast Asia is still dominated by Japanese manufacturers; from a regional perspective, Thailand and Vietnam are the main FPC production bases in Southeast Asia.
Despite the optimistic market prospects, the agency analyzed that the flexible board industry also faces some challenges. In particular, the EU plans to implement a ban on PFAS compounds in 2025, which may have an impact on the development of flexible board materials, especially high-frequency materials. Although PFAS regulation brings challenges, it also brings new business opportunities. Because high-end high-frequency materials are mainly monopolized by a few companies such as the United States and Japan. The PFAS restriction may prompt downstream customers to generate new demand for PFAS Free materials, which provides a rare opportunity for new entrants who want to enter the high-end materials market.
Looking to the future, the agency analyzed that with the gradual recovery of the global economy and the rebound of the consumer electronics market, the global flexible board market is expected to perform well in 2024 and 2025. The continued expansion of AI and electric vehicles will become the main force driving market development. Despite the challenges of environmental regulations and market competition, Taiwan's flexible board industry is expected to actively respond to technological innovation and market layout, which is expected to bring more development opportunities.
Related links: https://udn.com/news/story/7241/8165592
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