Market Trends of PCB Industry
Consumer Electronics Segment to be the Largest End-user Industry
- Owing to the growing demand for PCBs in the consumer electronics industry, the government is taking initiatives to spread awareness and provide essential training to students for PCB manufacturing.
- For instance, in February 2024, UMass Lowell announced the establishment of the Massachusetts Electronics Manufacturing Evolution (MEME) laboratory to help train students and industry workers in designing and fabricating PCBs. The project is supported with a USD 500,000 Massachusetts Skills Capital Grant for purchasing equipment for the facility. The Massachusetts Workforce Skills Cabinet offers the grant program, which is funded by the state through its capital budget.
- The PCB prototyping facility is a crucial component of modern technology, enabling entrepreneurs from countries such as the United States of America, India, and China to create cutting-edge products that can be launched globally.
- In March 2023, T-Works, India's largest prototype center, partnered with Qualcomm to establish a state-of-the-art multilayer Printed Circuit Board (PCB) fabrication facility. This new facility is anticipated to support the development of a wide range of products, including medical devices, electric vehicles, consumer electronics, industrial automation products, and more.
- Companies are developing wearable IoT devices in the consumer electronics industry to reduce users' reliance on smartphones. These devices can vary from primary and affordable gadgets like smartwatches and thermostats to advanced smart home automation applications, smart clothing, watches, hearables, and glasses. The way users work, communicate, and perform their daily tasks is being transformed by these devices. The usage and popularity of consumer IoT devices have grown significantly, and this trend is expected to continue as long as people demand IoT devices that are more affordable, faster, capable, powerful, and safer. According to Ericsson, short-range IoT devices like smart home appliances are expected to reach 25,150 million by 2027, which is expected to drive the market's growth.
- Furthermore, the rising IoT deployments and increasing demand for connected devices are expected to drive the market. The latest IoT Analytics "State of IoT—Spring 2023" report presents that the number of global IoT connections grew by 18% in 2022 to 14.3 billion active IoT endpoints.
- In 2023, the global number of connected IoT devices grew by 16% to 16.7 billion active endpoints. While 2023 growth was slightly lower than in 2022, IoT device connections are expected to continue to grow for many years. In addition, ownership of connected devices in the Asia-Pacific region is already high among those living in China, Thailand, and Vietnam.
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Asia Pacific Region is Expected to Witness Significant Growth
- With the rapid development of China's electronics industry, many Chinese PCB manufacturers have emerged as leading players in the global PCB market, capturing a market share in the Asia-Pacific region. These manufacturers offer a wide range of services and capabilities, including PCB design, fabrication, and assembly, with competitive pricing and fast turnaround times. They include JLCPCB, Graperain, Fulltronics, YMS PCB Assembly, and Hitech Circuits.
- At present, there are about 2,500 PCB manufacturers in mainland China. The PCB industry in China is mainly distributed in the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Bohai Rim, where they centralize the large component markets, good transportation conditions, and water and electricity conditions.
- Major reasons driving the growth of the PCB market in the Chinese region include lower overall cost and higher management efficiency. First, although China's demographic dividend is ending, labor costs are still lower than those of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan and even lower than those of Europe and the United States. Second, China's environmental protection, trade unions, and welfare sectors are relatively low-cost.
- In addition, as the world's largest manufacturing country, China's PCB industry has a complete industrial chain from copper foil, glass fiber, resin, copper-clad laminates, and PCBs. PCB is close to the final products, and a great number of electronics are also finished in China.
- Benefiting from the transfer of global PCB production capacity to China and the vigorous development of downstream electronic terminal products, China's PCB industry shows a rapid development trend. The electronic information industry is a strategic, essential, and leading pillar industry for China's key development. The PCB industry, as the cornerstone of the development of the electronic information industry, has become one of the projects encouraged by China.
- Furthermore, empirical data from reputable industry associations underscores Taiwan's continued dominance in global PCB production values, with a major market share. Notably, South Korean PCB manufacturers have surpassed their Japanese counterparts, securing the third position on a regional scale.
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