Materials are the most purchased items in the printed circuit industry for both business and technology customers. For this reason, material suppliers occupied the lion's share of space at the JPCA Show 2010; however, many suppliers considered to be large players in the PCB industry were absent this year. These suppliers always rented space in the past, but this year the majority of their space went to metal foil manufacturers. Why did they pass on this year's show?

One of my business associates affiliated with the material suppliers industry explained their absence. The beginning of their hardship began in the first half of 2008 when the global metal market was booming and oil prices were rising. Metal suppliers were raking in money at this time by selling their inventories at very high prices driven up by market demands. Most of their inventories were purchased the previous year at a cost that was significantly lower than their selling prices, and margins were well higher than historical rates. Market analysts predicted this booming business would continue for several years fueled by the expanding economies of China and other developing countries. Material companies continued to purchase raw materials at increasing higher market prices, and one company even bought copper mining rights in South America as a long term procurement strategy.

Unfortunately, the recession cooled down this over-heated market and demands declined significantly during the fourth quarter of 2008. Metal prices dropped drastically and manufacturers realized huge losses on all sales because their inventory costs were significantly above current market prices. This was almost two years ago, but they are still licking their wounds and budget constraints forced them all to cancel any promotional activities (including trade shows) this year.

Plastic product and laminate suppliers reserved booths, but their sizes were relatively smaller and their displays were more conservative compared to previous years. I did not discover any innovative or new materials in this zone.

Circuit board assembling and soldering products are another main attraction at the JPCA Show, and most companies occupied large spaces to demonstrate and present new products. Lead-free soldering is no longer the featured product at trade shows for this segment because it is now very common in the industry. Some of the soldering material suppliers promoted halogen-free soldering and displayed new halogen-free flux.

Most of the larger-sized equipment vendors from other countries did not attend this year's show. Domestic vendors were all too happy to pick up the slack and introduce new equipment--mostly screen-printers for solder pastes and mounting machines for tiny components. Most of the new machines have specifications that claim to handle 0402 and 0603 sized chip components; however, an engineer at one booth explained that the majority of the industry is still at a 1005 size. The sales pitch from equipment vendors focused on flexibilities and easy handling rather than high-speed processing.

There were zones at the show that included manufacturing equipment, test equipment and CAD systems. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time explore these areas.

Dominique K. Numakura
DKN Research, www.dknresearch.com