Forecast of Market Size and Development Trends of China's PCB Industry in 2017

PCB is the abbreviation for Printed Circuit Board in English. The conductive pattern formed by printing circuits, printed components, or a combination of both on insulating materials according to a predetermined design is usually called a printed circuit.

PCB was born in 1936, and the United States extensively used this technology in military radios in 1943; Since the mid-1950s, PCB technology has been widely adopted. At present, PCB has become the "mother of electronic products", and its applications have almost penetrated into various terminal fields of the electronics industry, including computers, communications, consumer electronics, industrial control, medical instruments, national defense and military industry, aerospace and many other fields.

In the future, with the development of the new generation of information technology industry, smartphones, automotive electronics LED、IPTV、 Emerging electronic products such as digital TVs continue to emerge, and the use and market of PCB products will continue to expand.

The development of PCB in our country began in 1956 and gradually expanded to form the PCB industry. After the reform and opening up, China's PCB industry achieved rapid development by introducing advanced foreign technology and equipment. Before 2000, Europe, America, and Japan were the world's major PCB production bases, accounting for over 70% of the global output value.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, China has promoted the transfer of global manufacturing industry with advantages such as labor costs and investment policies. The electronic product industry chain has gradually improved, forming a huge supporting market and demand space in China, which has driven the development of electronic supporting industries including PCB. The PCB industry in China is mainly distributed in the southern and eastern regions, accounting for 90% of the country's total. The industrial agglomeration effect is significant. This phenomenon is mainly related to the concentration of the main production bases of China's electronics industry in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta.

In 2006, China's actual PCB production reached 130 million square meters, with an output value of 12.1 billion US dollars, accounting for 24.90% of the global PCB output value, surpassing Japan to become the world's largest.

The 2008 global financial crisis had a huge impact on the PCB industry, but it did not cause a catastrophic blow to China's PCB industry. Under the stimulation of national economic policies, China's PCB industry experienced a comprehensive recovery in 2010, with a PCB output value of up to 19.971 billion US dollars. In 2014, the total global PCB output value was about 57.43 billion US dollars, and China's PCB output value accounted for 45.5% of the world's total, increasing from 43.8% in 2013 to 26.13 billion US dollars (domestic and foreign investment), about 165 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.3%.

In 2014, the production of PCB circuit boards in China was about 235 million square meters, an increase of 11.90% compared to 210 million square meters in 2013. The production of PCB circuit boards in China in recent years is shown in the following figure:




 
According to Prismark's prediction, the global PCB industry will continue to maintain a stable growth trend in the coming years, and it is expected that the market size of the global PCB industry will reach 65.7 billion US dollars in 2017. From 2012 to 2017, China's PCB industry will continue to maintain a growth trend and its global market position will continue to improve. The annual compound growth rate of China's PCB output value can reach 6%, which is 2.1 percentage points higher than the global level. By 2017, the total output value can reach 28.972 billion US dollars, accounting for 44.13% of the global market.

PCB, as the "mother of electronic products", is necessary and irreplaceable in the downstream electronic product production process. The strong development momentum of the electronics industry is the foundation for the growth of China's PCB industry, and the demand for downstream PCB industries is driving the rapid development of the PCB industry.

The 12th Five Year Plan for Electronic Information Manufacturing Industry issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology lists computer, communication equipment, digital audio-visual and other fields as key development projects during the 12th Five Year Plan period, encourages the continuous development of new products in existing fields, supports the upgrading and transformation of existing products, and proposes in the report that during the 12th Five Year Plan period, the average annual growth rate of sales revenue in China's large-scale electronic information manufacturing industry will remain at around 10%, with a target of exceeding 10 trillion yuan in 2015.

In the future, with the comprehensive deepening of China's information technology construction, the continuous acceleration of urbanization process, the continuous improvement of marketization level, the growth of residents' income, the expansion of domestic demand, and the upgrading of consumption structure, industries such as computers, communication equipment, IC packaging, and consumer electronics will gain new impetus for development. The development and upgrading of new products will bring a broader market space to the PCB industry.