Look into the prospect of 2009 PCB industry, due to the fact that the Notebook (NB) and intelligent mobile phone still have the potentiality to grow, therefore, people in the industry generally believe that there are still hope for the growth of NB board and FPC.
Because the prices of NB fall year after year, and people’s demand for PC mobility increases constantly, the tendency that NB will replace the desktop computer becomes more and more obvious. Some brokers in Taiwan expect that the worldwide turnout of NB in 2009 will be 131 million sets, increasing by 3.7% than that in 2008. Considering the additional demand for low cost NB, they estimate that the turnout of whole NB will reach 155 million sets. Annual growth rate will reach 12.58%. This growth prediction is rarely seen recently. Therefore it’s unnecessary for the NB board manufacturers to worry about. The NB turnout of Hann Star board and Gold Circuit Electronics in 2008 will increase 7% and word wide market share will rise from 63% (in 2007) to 70% which will make NB market a duopoly and there is nearly impossible for a new company entering into.
Besides, the market generally believes that the overall mobile phone demand in 2009 will decline. For intelligent mobile phones which use lot of FPC, however, the turnout in 2009 is estimated to be 186 million sets. The annual growth rate is still as high as 18.1%, which becomes the largest growth power for Taiwan FPC industry. As for the aspect of supply, because of the fierce competition, many second-tier FPC factories became bankrupt, which will be helpful to keep the stability of FPC industry.