PCB industry growth to remain slow<br>except for high-end segment

The analyst firm pointed out that the comparatively strong growth of IC substrates, blind via and rigid-flex PCBs. During 2006-2011 the penetration of applications that require high-end packaging is reflected in the corresponding industry growth rate for IC substrate, blind via and rigid-flex PCBs, of 7.7%, 7.1% and 6.3%, respectively. Taiwan players are now coming head-to-head with Japanese vendors for IC substrate production. For PCB materials the analyst firm predicts, severe competition among suppliers and price pressure from upstream material cost, should suppress the production value growth of major PCB materials to below 5%. The top-three materials suppliers have already grabbed over half of the market share.