Dominique Numakura's Newsletter from Japan

May PWB production in Japan

METI released the May PWB production data in Japan last week. The total revenue increased 3.0 % from the same month of 2003 to 65.8 billion Yen. But it is a 5.9% decline from April, the first month of the fiscal year. The total volume increased 4.3% to 2.11 million square meters. But it is a 6.2% decline from April.

Usually, the May shipment rebounds from April, and the total shipment keeps the increasing trends until July. The first month of the Japan fiscal year had the same trend in April similarly as the normal year. The shipments of the most circuit products in April declined a few percents from March. However, there was no rebound in May. All of the circuit products except module substrates reduced the shipment in May from April. The booming flexible circuits could not be an exception this time.

The flexible circuit market in Japan has been booming for the last two years. The rigid circuit market in Japan has been increasing in the last one year. It was not a significant decline, but it was the first clear sign of a down turn in the last two years. The Japan electronics industry has been expecting a significant growth in the first half of the year because of the hosting the special event of Athens Olympic in this summer. They were expecting some slow down after the event. But they did not expect it before. Unfortunately, there were some more signs of a slow down such as sales of cellular phones and personal computers in Japan. They have been showing some negative growths recently.

It may be too early to say whether the market has been shrinking or not. But we should pay attentions to the trends in the next few months. I hope it is not more than my concern.

Dominique Numakura

Headline News,   

Fujitsu (Major electronics company inn Japan)
Has developed a large size high density multi-layer boards for the 5G bps high speed circuits with 4000 pin counts.   

Mitsubishi Gas Chemical (Major PWB material supplier)
Will build the third copper laminate plant at its subsidiary Electro Techno in Fukushima-ken. It will start the operation March 2005 with 200,000 square meters monthly capacity.

Denso (Automobile electronics manufacturer in Japan)
Developed a new PALAP process (A multi-layer manufacturing process with thermo plastic resins) with PEEK based copper laminates made by Mitsubishi Pllastic.

SEZ Group (Chemical supplier for the etching process in Switzerland)
Has opened the customer’s open laboratory in Yokohama, Japan for the highest surface etching technologies.

Sony (Major electronics company in Japan)
Unveiled the large size organic EL display technology for the thin large size TV that can be hung on a wall at home.

Jusung Engineering Corp. (Equipment manufacturer in Korea)
Has received an order for four sets of PECVD lines of the 5.5 Generation LCD manufacturing lines from the major Taiwanese LCD manufacturer Chi Mei.

Hokuriku Electric (Major component supplier in Japan)
Has opened the world first 0402 SMT assembling line. Its failure rates are lower than 10 ppm. The line does not assume rework because of very high density.  (*0402 means the component size of 8 mil wide and 16 mil long.)

Oki Printed Circuits (Major PWB manufacturer in Japan)
Developed a new direct printing process of symbol marks on the circuit boards using ink jet printers. The process can reduce a lot of material waste including screens. 

NSG (Major glass material supplier in Japan)
Has co-developed glass based antenna for IC tags with Hitachi. 

All original news items were written in Japanese.  Volunteers are choosing the topics and translating to English for free delivery.  We are not responsible for the accuracy of the news. Quick news is the first priority of the headlines, therefore, we can not eliminate all of the mistakes in the translations.