EIPC Chairman Alun Morgan extended a warm welcome to delegates, but was sad to report the passing of Brian Haken, whose name had been synonymous with the foundation and direction of UK and European printed circuit trade associations for many years.
Morgan followed his opening remarks with a keynote market overview and business outlook for the global electronics industry, presented on behalf of industry analyst and EIPC board member Walt Custer.
Custer, noted for the alacrity of delivery of his statistics and trend lines, has a worthy deputy in Morgan. A mesmerising blur of information of the highest calibre, delivered at Custer-pace-plus!
Market Overview Highlights
Global and Eurozone purchasing managers’ indices remained marginally on the side of growth, and world electronic equipment revenues were showing year-on-year revenue growth of about 1.7%, with a similar trend in Europe. Of a world PCB sales total of $60 billion, Europe represented about 4% and North America 5%.
With acknowledgement to Michael Gasch for source material, Morgan reported that the European PCB industry had an acceptable year in 2014 though with only about 0.7% growth, and this was counter-balanced by losses due to the closure of some manufacturers, and stagnation in overall volume was seen as a consequence of ongoing transfer of high-volume business to Asia. A group of five countries (Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France and UK) accounted for almost 80% of total European production volume. The automotive industry was sourcing only innovative products in Europe, more than 90% of its needs coming from outside Europe, and the increasing share of electronics per vehicle did not result in higher revenues for the PCB industry. In fact, there had been a net decline since 2010. The European production value of the highly competitive consumer, communication, and computer industry market sectors had dropped by more than a third since 2010 and supplies of PCBs for industrial electronics had declined year-on-year by1.4%. The UK and France remained very active in supplying the defence, aeronautic and space industries, which had achieved strong growth in sales. The total number of manufacturers declined again in 2014, and in most cases the companies going out of business had been small, whilst others had joined larger groups to secure their survival. The manufacture of standard technology PCBs was falling at a slower rate than expected, and HDI, flex and flex-rigid had shown substantial growth.
Custer’s World PCB model forecast 2.5% growth for the current year, and leading indicators suggested 1% growth in Europe.
Having concluded the market overview, Morgan called forward EIPC board member Oldrich Simek of Pragoboard (Czech Republic) and presented him with a plaque acknowledging his enormous contribution over many years and bestowing upon him Honorary Fellowship of the Institute.
Tags: PCB manufacturer, PCB supplier, PCB assembly, PCB design, Multilayer PCB, HDI PCB, LED PCB, Automotive PCB, High Frequency PCB. Industry Control PCB, PCBA, PCB Samples, FPC manufacturer, Rigid-Flex PCB Manufacturer.