TOKYO -- An uptick in sales in December was not enough to push Japan's printed circuit board industry to the black for 2011.

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) reported December production data rose 4.9% sequentially to 53.04 billion yen. Sales were down 12.3% year-over-year.

For the year, total revenue fell 14.9% to 616.05 billion yen, giving back many of the gains from 2010, when sales rose 15.9%. The industry was affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the flood in Thailand.

Build-up board sales fell 19%, rigid substrates also plunged and domestic fabricators will pull out of CoF volume production. Double-sided and multilayer flexible circuits production volume increased 1.5% and revenue declined by 10.5%.

According to analyst Dominique Numakura, "The business climate for the circuit board industry in Japan is very serious – the slowdown does not appear to be temporary."

"I expect a lot of consolidation from the Japanese electronics industry," he said.

He compared the problems to those of the US PCB manufacturers in 2001. "Most of their manufacturing capacity disappeared overnight. Conditions may not be exactly the same; however, history does tend to repeat itself."

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