The first half of 2009 review-- Japan's PCB industry

In the June revenue reached 557 billion yen, increased by12.7% over the previous month. Since March of the monthly shipmentsare increasing, but income is still lower than 30.1% the sameperiod last year. In the June shipments totaled 1.466 millionsquare meters, an increase 17.9% over the previous month, butdropped by 30.4%, lower than in June 2008 . Comparedto February， the trading volume dropped by 50% which aterrible figure .In June still has a small pick-up. The rate ofdecline is slowing, there may be to reverse. For most major productlines, since the September 2008 financial and credit crisis, itssales in recent years have greatly improved. Total sales are stillwell below the previous year, however, all indicators show gooddata, we may be in the recovery process. The first half of thetotal income ranked 270 billion yen, compared with the same periodin 2008 decline 43.3%. In the first half shipments totaled 6.8million square meters, dropped 44.1%.

The following is the performance of various products in thefirst half. High-end products, such as the set of built-inmulti-layer PCBs (-21.3%), double-sided and multilayer flexibleversion (-15.8%) and rigidity of the module substrate (-16.3%)decline were significantly less than the industry average. Thetrading volume of other the module substrate, including the TAB andCOF both has declined, higher than the industry average 61.9%significantly.

How about the future? Used in consumer products and industrialin the traditional rigid plates are both transferred to the foreignfirms. Rigid board the high-end market, mainly built-in, willcontinue to be produced in Japan.

Rigid module substrate, in the next few months, sales willcontinue to grow, but after 6 months of sales is difficult topredict. Japanese a whole industry will be improved in the secondhalf of 2009, but the pace of recovery will be slow. The totaloutput in 2009 will be about 80% of the previous year, which mayalso take up to two years to recover to the highest level.