Worldwide sales of printed circuit boards in 2005

channel-e
Published: 2006-06-02

The association of the printed circuit board industry and the ZVEI (Central Association of the German Electrical and Electronic Engineering Industry) trade association Electronic Components and Systems produced an estimate of the global printed circuit board market in the past year. According to the estimate the global market in 2005 grew by 5.7% to 38.5 billion US$. Compared to the previous year this corresponds to an increase of over 6%. The largest share of approximately 58.3% was achieved in Japan and Southeast Asia. The largest growth was 1.5 billion US$ (12.9%) and this was again achieved in Southeast Asia. In Europe sales amounted to 5.65 billion US$ which in turn corresponds to an increase of 1.3% compared to 2004. In Europe an increase of 3.5% is expected for the current twelve months. According to the association of the printed circuit board industry and the ZVEI companies are being put under enormous cost pressure due to increased prices for energy and raw materials. Thus the increase in price of crude oil affects energy costs as well as many primary products like, for example, chemicals, resins, paints and base material. In the months from January to April 2006 the price of crude oil increased by over 21%. The following metals were also affected by price increases: gold (18%), aluminium (21%), nickel (37%), tin (41%) and copper (59%).

Fewer European manufacturers

The number of European printed circuit board manufacturers dropped in 2005. In 2004 there were 426 manufacturers of printed circuit boards compared to 379 in 2005. Production volume in 2005 totalled 2.75 billion Euros which was a drop of 8.4% on the previous year. Capacity is also being reduced as a result of the decrease in production. According to the estimate produced by the association of the printed circuit board industry and the ZVEI this is leading to longer delivery times for printed circuit boards for which demand is currently improving. At the end of 2005 there were 25,735 people employed in the industry in Europe, in the previous year the industry employed 28,400 workers. This reduction in the number of workers can be put down to both factory closures as well as better equipment. In 2005 the main customer segments in Europe were the industrial electronics industry (27.3%) and the communications industry (26.1%) followed by the automotive electronics industry (21.1%). In the areas of consumer electronics and data processing 6.9% (5.5 billion US$) was achieved. Other segments accounted for 13.1%.

Germany is the largest production location in Europe

More than a third of all European printed circuit boards are manufactured in Germany. Germany‘s share of total European production is 36.2%. In 2005 ninety German printed circuit board manufacturers employing 8,500 staff produced printed circuit boards worth 981 million Euros. In the previous year 104 companies employing 9,480 staff were active in the industry, production volume in 2004 totalled 1.04 billion Euros. The main customer segment for printed circuit boards manufactured in Germany was the automotive electronics industry (33.6%) followed by the industrial electronics industry (23.9%) and the communications industry (18.1%). 8.2% was delivered to the data processing segment while 6.5% was delivered to the consumer electronics industry. Other segments accounted for 9.7%.

Market growth in Germany expected

Market volume stagnated in Germany in 2005. It totalled 1.35 billion Euros which was almost exactly the same as the previous year. The main customer segments were the automobile electronics industry (32%) and the industrial electronics industry (29.0%). 22.7% of sales were made in the area of telecommunications, this area was followed by the segments data technology (9.5%) and consumer electronics (7.1%). Increases are expected for all segments with the exception of consumer electronics. For 2006 the association of the printed circuit board industry and the ZVEI are expecting an increase of 2.2% to 1.375 million Euros.