Limited by the extension of smart phone replacement cycle and lack of innovation in South Korea in 2018, the sales of flexible circuit boards declined and the expected results could not be delivered, while the demand for MSAP applications, which had been highly anticipated by the industry, was also lower than expected. Despite the growth of the global automotive electronic PCB market, the domestic market has shrunk as sales of major customers have declined.
On the other hand, thanks to the flourishing development of memory, sales of IC modules and semiconductor substrates have increased. In addition, with the emergence of 5G, the demand for multi-layer board for base station communication equipment also increases.
South Korea's PCB output value was 9.8 trillion won in 2018 (an annual decline of 3.0%) due to weak sales of soft boards. Global growth in smart phone manufacturing has slowed down, resulting in a larger decline in sales of RF components HDI substrates than that of semiconductor PCBs, while the increase in sales of semiconductor PCBs is due to the increased demand for memory.
Although the smartphone market is expected to slump in 2019, the new demand for 5G PCB applications and foldable PCB, as well as the increase in the number of smartphone lenses, are expected to slightly reduce the annual sales of PCB to 9.65 trillion won.
In 2018, the output of printed circuit boards in Korea reached 33.9 million square meters, an annual decline of 3.8%. The production scale of hardboard is 24.82 million square meters, with an annual decline of 3.1%. As the demand for RF components declined, the flexible PCB industrial block fell by 9.3%. The annual growth rate of semiconductor PCB with high added value per unit area is 5.4%, and the production volume reaches 2.55 million square meters. (This article was translated from 1929 KPCA Show Bulletin)
The Trend of PCB Industry in Korea
2019 08/26
