Dominique Numakura's Newsletter from Japan

July PWB production in Japan

METI, Japan released the July PWB production data last week. The Japanese PWB market returned to cloudy situation again. Usually, Japanese PWB manufacturers have the busy season in July in a year before the summer vacation. Unfortunately, this summer was slightly different from the normal years. The total volume of July production was 2.261 million square meters. It was 0.2% growth from the June production. The volume was 1.5% larger than the same period of 2003. The total revenue of the July shipments was 70.2 billion Yens. It was 2.4% decline from the previous month. And it was 0.6% growth from the same month of 2003. It means the July PWB production had no remarkable changes from previous month and the same month of the previous year.

There are several differences between the circuit types. Some of the data are not understandable. The production volume of the rigid boards declined 1.7%, but the revenue increased 5.6% compared to the same month of 2003. A specialty is the single side rigid boards. They declined the volume 11.6% but increased the revenue 17.8%. It means the unit price went up significantly. On the other hand, 4 layer boards had a larger decline by revenue (7.8%) than volume (2.8%). The average price dropped remarkably in this case. The single side flex circuits had the same production volume compared to the last year. But the revenue declined 6.9% from the same month of 2003.  It means single side flex had 6.7% down of the average price. The total of double side and multi-layer flex had 14.8% increase by the volume and 16.1% increase by the revenue. They are still keeping the double digit of the growth rates. The module circuits had 14.5% increase by volume, but 20.8% decline by revenue. It was a significant price drop from the same month of the previous year. 

As I told in the beginning, the total Japan PWB market in July did not have remarkable change from the previous month and the same month of 2003. And I could not find any positive signs except double and multi-layer flex in this month. Certainly, the August production drops because of the long summer vacation in Japan. I can say only that we can not expect a significant rebound for a while. It is a difficult situation to expect what will happen in the next half year.
 
Dominique Numakura

Headline News,   

Kaneka (Major polyimide film supplier)
Has been planning the global marketing of the "See Through Type Solar Cells", especially in the U.S. and Europe.

Panasonic (Major electron company in Japan)
Will roll out the world’s largest (65") PDP TV, TH-650x300 in October.

Program Jisso Consortium (Japan)
Unveiled the prototype of the new SiP (System in Package) made by Ink jet printing technologies,

Matsushita Electric (The largest laminate supplier in Japan)
Will expand the manufacturing capacities of the halogen-free materials.

NEC (Major electronics company in Japan)
Commercialized the thinnest tablet PC with a 1.8" disc drive. 11 mm thick and 885 grams weight.

Fujikura (Major flexible circuit manufacturer in Japan)
Will move 200 employees from the optical fiber division to the electronics material division and the other subsidiaries.

Mitsubishi Plastic (Major plastic supplier in Japan)
Commercialized the bio-chemical plastic film "Pre-Make HL PLA" for the ink jet printers. It can be laminated on the device by a thermal process.

Rohm (Major device manufacturer in Japan)
Developed a new thermal head "NF3004-VC20A" for the photo color printers. The new device has a higher productivity with a small package.

Nittobo (Major glass fiber supplier)
Will increase the domestic sales price of glass cloth again for the printed circuit board in October.

Hitachi Metal (Major metal supplier in Japan) 
Will invest 400 million Yen to found a new manufacturing subsidiary of sputtering targets. The demands of LCD devices have been growing remarkably.

Sam Sung Electronics (Major electronics company in Korea)
Unveiled the world’s first cellular phone with a 1.5 GB hard disc drive.

Okaya Electric (Major component supplier)
Will expand the business of film capacitors in the other application of the noise removers. 

Tokuyama (Major material supplier in Japan)
Will invest one billion Yen to increase the manufacturing capacity of multiple crystal silicon to 5200 tons per year for the booming demands of the semiconductors and solar cells.

Totoku Cable (middle class cable supplier in Japan)
Co-developed an ultra-high heat resistant optical fiber. The quartz fiber coated with silica can survive in 1000 degree C circumstances with Shinshu University.

Panasonic Communications (Device manufacturer in Japan)
Commercialized the world’s thinnest (9.5 mm thick, 145 grams) DVD multi-drive for the notebook computers.

JETRO (Japan)
More than 80% Japanese manufacturers in southern China had the electric power shortage problems in this summer. 45% companies introduced their own generation systems this year.

Fuji Sankei Business (Japanese magazine)
70 million cellular phones (about 7000 tons) are disposed in China last year. A serious pollution is expected if there is no effective recycling system.

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.