Though PCB makers Hannstar Board and Global Brand Manufacture (GBM) both saw December revenues decline sequentially due to clients adjusting inventory at year's end, the companies indicated that the notebook PCB sector is showing signs of improvement judging by current orders.
Hannstar indicated that despite the popularity of tablet PCs, its notebook PCB shipments will rise 16% from 86 million units in 2010, which should represent a stronger growth versus the overall notebook market.
Hannstar's plant in Jiangyin, China has monthly HDI board capacity of 250,000 square feet, and mostly produces for handset and digital camera applications. Utilization is currently under 50%, and hence, the company plans to transfer some capacity to conventional board manufacturing. For 2011, the Jiangyin plant will also produce HDI boards for tablet PC.
After Hannstar completes its sixth plant in Jiangyin in 2011, the company has no more major expansion projects and will maintain capacity at 250,000 square feet monthly for HDI board and 6.25 million square feet for conventional PCB. Hannstar's capex will drop to NT$500 million (US$17.09 million) in 2011 versus NT$2.5-3 billion in 2010.
GBM, on the other hand, is looking to aggressively ramp up capacity. The company's PCB monthly capacity is at 4.5 million square feet with 148 SMT lines at the moment. GBM is seeing notebook PCB orders in excess of capacity by 20-30%. It has plans to bump up capacity by another 20% in 2011.
GBM will install more automated equipment in its China-based plants in 2011 as a solution to the labor shortage and wage increase, and is expecting to bring down human resource cost by 3-5% in 2011.
GBM: Revenues, Nov 2009 - Nov 2010 (NT$m) |
Month | Sales | M/M | Y/Y | YTD | Y/Y |
Nov-10 | 2,533 | (2.2%) | 21.4% | 25,710 | 10.1% |
Oct-10 | 2,589 | 13.2% | 37% | 23,177 | 9% |
Sep-10 | 2,288 | (5.1%) | (0.4%) | 20,588 | 6.3% |
Aug-10 | 2,412 | (4.7%) | (8.5%) | 18,299 | 7.2% |
Jul-10 | 2,531 | 28.5% | (8.2%) | 15,887 | 10.1% |
Jun-10 | 1,970 | (21.5%) | (11.6%) | 13,357 | 14.4% |
May-10 | 2,511 | 3.7% | 22.6% | 11,387 | 20.5% |
Apr-10 | 2,421 | 4.7% | 7.2% | 8,876 | 20% |
Mar-10 | 2,311 | 24.7% | 13.2% | 6,456 | 25.6% |
Feb-10 | 1,854 | (19.1%) | 12.8% | 4,144 | 33.8% |
Jan-10 | 2,290 | 13.8% | 57.5% | 2,290 | 57.5% |
Dec-09 | 2,013 | (3.5%) | 28.9% | 25,356 | (4%) |
Nov-09 | 2,087 | 10.4% | (0.2%) | 23,343 | (6.1%) |
*Figures are not consolidated
Source: TSE, compiled by Digitimes, January 2011
HannStar Board: Revenues, Dec 2009 - Dec 2010 (NT$m) |
Month | Sales | M/M | Y/Y | YTD | Y/Y |
Dec-10 | 190 | (6.4%) | 16.1% | 2,214 | 7% |
Nov-10 | 203 | 1.2% | 3.7% | 2,024 | 6.2% |
Oct-10 | 201 | 3.5% | (0.8%) | 1,821 | 6.5% |
Sep-10 | 194 | 1.9% | (0.1%) | 1,620 | 7.4% |
Aug-10 | 190 | 0.6% | (1.5%) | 1,426 | 8.5% |
Jul-10 | 189 | 2.9% | 2.2% | 1,236 | 10.3% |
Jun-10 | 184 | (3.1%) | 3.8% | 1,047 | 11.9% |
May-10 | 190 | 8.3% | 9.7% | 863 | 13.8% |
Apr-10 | 175 | (3.9%) | 1.7% | 673 | 15% |
Mar-10 | 182 | 35.3% | 5.9% | 498 | 20.5% |
Feb-10 | 135 | (25.6%) | 7.1% | 316 | 30.9% |
Jan-10 | 181 | 10.7% | 56.7% | 181 | 56.7% |
Dec-09 | 164 | (16.4%) | 35.8% | 2,070 | (21.4%) |
*Figures are not consolidated
Source: TSE, compiled by Digitimes, January 2011