PCB Industry Chain-Deep Analysis

1. Introduction to PCB
Printed circuit board (hereinafter referred to as PCB) is a finished board that uses insulating substrate and conductor as materials and designs and makes conductive patterns of printed circuits, printed components or a combination of the two according to the pre-designed circuit schematic diagram. Its main function is to use board-based insulating materials to isolate the copper foil conductive layer on the surface to realize the interconnection and relay transmission between electronic components, the current along the preset line in a variety of electronic components to complete the amplification, attenuation, modulation, decoding, encoding and other functions, to achieve the interconnection and relay transmission between electronic components.
PCB has many kinds of classification:

According to the softness of the substrate material, it can be divided into rigid board (R-PCB), flexible board (FPC,Flexible Printed Circuit), rigid flexible board;

According to the number of layers of the conductive pattern, it can be divided into single-sided board, double-sided board and multi-layer board; among them, multi-layer board can be divided into middle and low-level board and high-level board;
According to the application field, it can be divided into communication board, consumer electronics board, computer board, automotive electronics board and so on;
In addition, there are special product categories, such as high-speed high-frequency boards, high-density connection boards (HDI, High Density Interconnector), and packaging substrates.

2.PCB industry chain

Upstream of 2.1 industry chain
Upstream raw materials include copper foil, resin, glass fiber cloth, wood pulp, ink, copper balls, etc., of which copper foil, resin and glass fiber cloth are the three main raw materials. Representative companies are mainly Murata, Qorvo, Shengyi Technology, Kingboard base plate, Mitsui Metal and so on.
Copper foil is the most important raw material for the manufacture of copper clad laminate, accounting for about 30% (thick plate) and 50% (thin plate) of the cost of copper clad laminate. The price of copper foil depends on changes in the price of copper and is greatly influenced by international copper prices. Copper foil is a kind of negative electrolytic material, which is deposited on the base layer of the circuit board. It acts as the conductor of the PCB to conduct and dissipate heat in the PCB.
Glass fiber cloth is also one of the raw materials of copper clad laminate, woven from glass fiber yarn, according to the thickness can be divided into thick cloth, thin cloth, ultra-thin cloth and special specifications of cloth. About 40% (thick plate) and 25% (thin plate) of the cost of copper clad laminate. Glass fiber cloth in PCB manufacturing as a reinforcing material to increase the role of strength and insulation, in all kinds of glass fiber cloth, synthetic resin in PCB manufacturing is mainly used as an adhesive to the glass fiber cloth bonded together. At present, the production capacity of glass fiber cloth in mainland China and Taiwan has accounted for about 70% of the world. The specification of fiberglass cloth is relatively single and stable, and its price is greatly affected by the relationship between supply and demand.
Other raw materials such as prepreg, ink, gold salt, etc. account for a lower proportion of the raw material cost of the printed circuit board, and have less impact on the cost of the printed circuit board.

The world's top ten electrolytic copper foil production enterprises accounted for the proportion of copper foil production industry concentration is high, the industry leader bargaining power. The copper foil used in PCB production is mainly made by electrolytic method. The process flow of electrolytic copper foil is long, the processing requirements are strict, and there are capital and technical barriers. After several integrations, the industry concentration is high. The top ten copper foil manufacturers in the world account for 73% of the output. They have strong bargaining power over the entire copper foil industry, and the price increase of upstream raw material copper can be transferred downward. The price of copper foil affects the price of copper clad laminate, which in turn causes a downward change in the price of the circuit board.
Nord Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of electrolytic copper foil. Its products are mainly used in the production and manufacturing of lithium batteries; it is also engaged in the business of products such as wires, cables and accessories, and material trading. In China, the company has established sustained and stable cooperative relations with large and strong domestic power battery enterprises such as Ningde Times, BYD, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Tianjin Lishen, AVIC Lithium Battery, etc.; in foreign countries, the company has also established business cooperation relations with international well-known battery manufacturers and end customers such as LG Chemical and SK. Electrolytic copper foil is an important basic material, which is widely used in electronic information technology, advanced manufacturing, bioengineering, new energy, new materials, energy conservation and environmental protection and other strategic emerging industries.

Middle reaches of 2.2 industry chain
PCB midstream includes copper clad laminate manufacturers and PCB manufacturers.
Copper clad laminate is made of copper foil, epoxy resin, glass fiber yarn and other raw materials. PCB operating costs of raw materials accounted for a relatively large, about 60-70%. Copper Clad Laminate is the core substrate of PCB manufacturing. Copper clad laminate is a plate-shaped material formed by impregnating reinforcing material with organic resin, covering one or both sides with copper foil, and hot pressing. It is responsible for the three major functions of (PCB) conductivity, insulation and support. It is a special laminate specially used for PCB manufacturing. Copper clad laminate accounts for 20% ~ 40% of the total PCB production cost and accounts for the highest proportion of all PCB material costs, the glass fiber cloth substrate is the most common type of copper clad laminate, which is made of glass fiber cloth as a reinforcing material and epoxy resin as an adhesive.
The leader of the domestic copper-clad plate is Shengyi Technology, you can read the article "Shengyi Technology-copper-clad plate leader" in the public number. Shengyi Technology's market share is 12%, the industry's major companies have a strong bargaining power, while the downstream copper-clad PCB industry CR10 is only 26%, belongs to the fully competitive industry. Statistics from the Copper Clad Laminate Branch of the China Electricity Materials Association show that in 2018, my country's total copper clad laminate production capacity was 0.885 billion square meters, a year-on-year increase of 5%, and the overall capacity utilization rate was 73.97. The problem of overcapacity in my country's regular copper clad laminates still exists., But the high-end, high-performance copper clad laminate field still needs a large amount of imports. In 2018, China's total sales revenue of copper clad laminate reached 55.969 billion billion yuan, up 9.6 percent year-on-year.