The 2015 European PCB Industry

[Louice]

The 2015 European PCB Industry
http://www.pcbpartner.com/home/IndustryNews.html

[PCB Partner] As supplier to the European PCB industry for more than 40 years, including 20 years manufacturing mass lamination boards, I am concerned with our future.

The purpose of this article is to share with other participants in the electronics manufacturing supply chain (suppliers of PCB shops, PCB shops, assembly companies, OEMs and end-users) my thoughts on how the future of our industry looks, and how we might act and cooperate to make it better.
The Current Situation
First, I would like to recall some figures about the actual situation. In 1990 there were about 1,500 PCB manufacturing shops in Europe. By 2000, this figure had dropped to 1,000, and in 2005 to 500. At this rate, the number may drop to 250 PCB shops by 2011.
In one year, the suppliers of this industry have lost five copper-clad laminate plants (out of seven) and two copper plants (out of four).
Equipment manufacturers have suffered even more than the PCB shops. The value of the boards manufactured in Europe has decreased in 10 years by 50%, while at the same time the global PCB market has grown. In the last 18 months, we have seen very few new investments and nearly no new opening of plants; instead, many European plants have closed or have reduced their number of employees.
How has the world financial crisis affected the European PCB industry?
The photo of a black hole in Figure 1 is representative of the European PCB industry. According to the general theory of relativity, a black hole is a region of space from which nothing, including light, can escape. Around a black hole there is an undetectable surface which marks the point of no return, called an event horizon.

This black hole is a metaphorical way of showing how many companies and technologists have disappeared in a short time. We are not going to see them again.
For me, then, this article is also an opportunity to pay homage to all these people - the companies manufacturing PCBs or involved in the European PCB industry for many years. They overcame the crisis of 2000 and other crises, only to leave or to close their plants due to the current crisis.
We can see in Figure 2 that in 2009 the sales of PCBs manufactured in Europe dropped by 35%. After this strong plunge, we had several W curves that we thought signaled progressive recovery, but the main improvement has only started with Germany in September 2009; since then it has gotten a little better for the rest of Europe as well.

Source: www.pcbpartner.com

[Louice]

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Loucie from PCB Partner