The week began March 17, with the opening of the 11^th annual Electronic Circuit World Convention. This is the first time this conference has been hosted in Asia.

The three-day program featured over 90 papers on topics ranging from environmental management to improved chemical processes, and from facilities management to the latest fabrications techniques. Presentations from PCB supply companies like MacDermid, Mentor Graphics and Nan Ya Plastics Electronic Materials – CCL and PCB fabrication companies including ISU Petasys, Aspocomp, Eltek, Coretec and Viasystems covered the critical aspects of PCB fabrication for over 1000 conference attendees.

Simultaneous to the second day of the conference, in a location about 1 hour away, three exhibits opened. Beginning March 18^th, the CPCA Show, Electronica and ProductronicaChina and Semicon China all opened at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre. This is the second year the shows have co-located here. The reported first day attendance for the CPCA show was just over 21,000 people, with 5% from outside of Asia. There were more international exhibitors attending the show, many staffing booths with Chinese partners, and a few standing out as a break away from the crowd.

One very interesting exhibitor at CPCA this year is DDi, doing something akin to an “Asian Invasion” according to senior VP of sales, Jerry Barnes. They are six months into an Asian-focused sales program to bring specialty products like stacked vias and true fast turn for complex multilayer PCBs, including sequential lamination products, to customers in Asia. Currently sales of PCBs manufactured in the U.S. and shipped to Asia account for 7 % of sales. The company is embarking on a similar program to gain sales in Europe.