Japan Substrate Output to Up by 4% in 2006

Japanese electronics substrate output will increase by 4% to 1.173 trillion yen in 2006 from 2005, according to research by Japan Electronics Packaging and Circuits Association. The output increases due to higher demand for flexible substrate with thinner, smaller and lighter advantage. The association expects the demand will increase by annual 2-3% toward 2010.The industry activity is firm due to price recovery since the end of 2005. However, some industry interests are skeptical for the optimistic estimate because the industry experienced major up and down for the demand in shorter cycle in recent years. The output is expected to increase in fiscal 2006 except for rigid printed circuit board, one-side flexible printed circuit board and other printed circuit board. Especially the demand increases for build up printed circuit board and other high performance products. The demand will increase for flexible printed circuit board due to advantages including thinner, smaller and lighter body. The output will increase by 14% for flexible printed circuit board and by 27.7% for flex rigid printed circuit board in 2006 from 193 billion yen and 14 billion yen respectively in 2005. The association expects domestic electronics substrate market will increase by annual 3.1% until 2008 and by annual 2.5% until 2010 reaching annual 1.278 trillion yen. The market will increase by 6.5% for build up printed circuit board, by 7.4% for doubled sided flexible printed circuit board and by 7.1% for rigid printed circuit board for module board. The demand of metal core printed circuit board increases by 15.4% despite of the still small volume.