The show expands as many new local equipment manufactures come to
market with products that are more reliable, and ready to meet the
global competition.
The Taiwan Printed Circuit Association
(TPCA) hosted its annual trade show in October at Taipei World Trade
Center. TPCA Show 2007 lasted three days and included the E Assembly
Expo and other related events simultaneously organized within the venue
to display their latest technologies and products. Over 300 companies
and organizations reserved booths, and many foreign companies partnered
with major trading companies to display their goods, therefore, total
exhibitors numbered over 400. The floor of the main building overflowed
with exhibitors, and TPCA had to prepare another floor next to the main
building to accommodate the spillover.
The TPCA Show has
evolved into the largest exhibition for PCB and related support
industries in Asia (excluding Japan). Many engineers and buyers from
printed circuit manufacturers in Taiwan visited the exhibition. I
recognized many foreign visitors from Japan, North America and Europe,
and even some foreign visitors from Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and
India. The TPCA Show may have more foreign visitors than the JPCA Show
in Japan. The JPCA Show is still larger than the TPCA Show and holds
its position as the technical leader in the industry; however, the TPCA
Show could have bragging rights as the business center for the global
PCB industry.
Visitor’s expectations were low relative to
uncovering new technologies, but most were interested in discovering
lower cost materials and manufacturing equipment. They are not loyal to
Taiwanese materials and equipment manufacturers, but will shop their
needs with other countries. Suppliers and manufacturers from China
receive most of the business and inquiries. Colleges and institutes
reserved prime spaces to display their new technologies and chronicle
their technical studies and also provided a historical record for the
PCB industry. Their booths were able to educate the newbies in the
industry, as well as industry outsiders who wanted to learn more.
TPCA
provided statistical and historical data from the global printed
circuits industry in Taiwan and also from other major PCB manufacturing
markets, including Mainland China. The numerical data is valuable
because it lists the manufacturing amounts from China and Taiwan
separately, so the data is more trustworthy. Most market research
reports double count the numbest of Taiwanese manufacturers and those
flagged as “made in China” from foreign companies. Industry knowledge
is valuable to help understand market situations and predict future
trends within the industry. This is one of the reasons I believe Taiwan
will become the business center for the global PCB or electronics
industry.
One unlucky bit of timing for the exhibition was
the historically huge typhoon approaching the Taipei area during the
week. TPCA decided to close the exhibition a half hour earlier and
asked exhibitors to clean and vacate their booths before midnight. Many
people returned home Friday afternoon, and attendance counts were
minimal on Friday afternoon. Usually, the last day is the busiest day
of the exhibition. Exhibitors began closing up after 3:00 p.m. However,
many resilient Taiwanese sales people were still hustling and
negotiating deals while others were breaking down their booths. The
typhoon landed in Northern Taiwan Saturday afternoon bringing with it
heavy rains and strong winds, and leaving serious damage to the area.
I
visited a PCB manufacturer in the Taipei area for a meeting on
Saturday; many employees and management worked during the typhoon.
Company management guaranteed the delivery of products by the end of
the week. The president of the company finally dismissed employees,
asking them to travel by taxicab instead of their small motorcycles.
Soon after, the sales manager loaded products into a car, and left the
company in the stormy weather to deliver them to a customer in the next
province; another example of Taiwanese PCB manufacturers showing their
tenacity and toughness.
The Taiwan Printed Circuit
Association Show 2007 needed more floor space compared to previous
years to accommodate the increase in the number of vendors
participating. Machine suppliers for assembly machines and test
equipment reserved a significant amount of space, and many people noted
that a number of Taiwanese machine manufacturers had relatively large
booths to display their new products. Some foreign machine suppliers,
such as Orbotech, an Israel AOI machine company and Schmid, a German
wet process supplier, secured their own space at the show, but many
foreign machine companies arranged to share booths with local trading
companies, such as Ofuna, WKK and Daidalos.
Competition has
heated up between Taiwanese and foreign machine manufacturers.
Previously, the Taiwanese machines had a reputation of being sub-par
with low reliability. The machines designs were actual copies from
foreign manufacturers, and their structures were very similar.
Unfortunately, the Taiwanese products were not as reliable. However,
they have made significant improvements over the years.
There
are now many reliable machine suppliers in Taiwan that can meet the
needs for printed circuit manufacturing and the assembly processes,
including NC drilling machines, exposure machines, wet-processing
lines, heat presses, screen printers, punching presses, surface-mount
technology mounting machines, soldering furnaces, board testers, etc.
On the surface, the machines made in Taiwan do not appear efficient.
However, productivity from them is almost equal to the foreign
manufactured machines.
Automation, HDI capabilities and
reliability from the Taiwanese machines still lag behind the machines
from Japanese or European companies, but the technical gaps are
decreasing. I observed a couple of unique machines made in Taiwan for
manufacturing flexible circuits, especially for the coverlay
lamination. Company representatives reported the machines are now
exported to Japan and Korea.
Huge advantages the Taiwanese
manufacturers have over foreign companies are their communication
skills with buyers from China, which boasts the largest PCB market in
the world nowadays. Most of the major manufacturers within the Chinese
PCB market are Taiwanese, and their decision makers are also Taiwanese.
Taiwanese machine manufacturing representative have built a strong
rapport with these key people. Taiwanese machine manufacturers will be
tough competitors for the Japanese and European manufacturers in the
future.
I
was a little bit disappointed with the representation from material
suppliers and PCB manufacturers. Last year’s show included many of
these suppliers; however, this year not many participated. There were
major copper foil suppliers at the show but not many laminate
suppliers. There were more than 10 adhesiveless flexible copper
laminate suppliers at the TPCA Show last year, but only three companies
this year (one of them was a new face). A friend commented that the
flex business has been sluggish for the past year, and budget
constraints were the reason for these companies not renting booths. On
a positive note, three new flexible circuit polyimide film suppliers
reserved booths at the show.
PCB manufacturers were not
very aggressive promoting their new technologies, and many big
Taiwanese PCB manufacturers had the smallest booths in the show. Some
of them had no samples to display or representatives to promote their
technologies and products. It may be true that the target customers of
TPCA Show are these PCB manufacturers, so PCB manufacturers do not
expect to see their customers, actual assemblers and OEM manufacturers,
in Taiwan.
Anyway, I have learned a lot of information
about the PCB and related industries, not only in Taiwan, but also from
the Asian market during the show under a Typhoon warning. PCD&F
Dominique Numakura is president of DKN Research; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
