Global PCB market<br>up 11% in 2006

Globally the demand for printed circuit boards increased in the year 2006. The market reached as in the years before with plus 14 percent the strongest growth rate in south-east Asia and China. Also the market in Japan showed a growth of about 7.4 percent. Together Southeast Asia and Japan achieved sales of 25.4 billion US $ and 9.15 billion US $ which combines to a global market share of about 73 percent (previous year 72 percent). The American market increased around 8.4 percent to a volume of 6.05 billion US $ which results in global market share of 13 percent. In Europe the market volume reached 5.6 billion US $, an increase of about 8.7 percent compared to the previous year with around 450 Mio. US $. The global market share is 12 percent. For 2007 a market growth of 1.8 percent is expected for Europe. In 2006 prices for energy, copper and mineral oil products increased worldwide which results to higher financial pressure on the PCB manufacturers. In detail gold price increased during the last year 22 percent, silver 43 percent, aluminum 26 percent and copper 39 percent. Prices for Nickel and tin increase about 180 and 153 percent. Production relocation in Europe The production volume in Europe totaled in 2006 to 2,748 Mio. Euro and remained almost on the level of the previous year (2,750 Mio. Euro). In 2006 Europe counted 342 manufacturers compared to 379 in the previous year. At the end of the year 2006 the number of employees in Europe summed up to 24,202 compared to 25,735 in the previous year. Plant shutdowns mainly affected companies with revenues between 2 and 10 Mio. Euro. In 2006 there was also a certain shift of production volumes within Europe. The production volume decreased in Great Britain to 252 Mio. Euro (-9.3 percent), in Spain to 167 Mio. Euro (-13.5 percent). The German-speaking countries could increase their production volume in the last year - Switzerland to 175 Mio. Euro (+ 4.8 percent) and Austria to 272 Mio. Euro (+4.6 percent). In Germany the production increased from 981 Mio. Euro to 1,054 Mio. Euro (+ 7.4 percent). Main reason was the transfer of production back from Asia due to delivery bottlenecks and quality problems. The main customer segments in 2006 were industrial electronics with 34 percent and the communication industry with 22 percent, followed by automotive with 21 percent. Computer and consumer electronics reached six and five percent and others 12 percent.