Japan's PCB industry: Japan's board makers continue to grow--and invest heavily abroad.

In 2004, Japanese PCB production reached $10.3 billion, about 90% of its past peak. Japanese overseas production of PCBs was $3 billion. This amounted to over $13 billion in domestic and overseas production in 2004, approximately 33.5% of the world's production of $38.8 billion. On the other hand, Japan's strongest rival in the past, the U.S., produced about $6.5 billion altogether in the U.S. and overseas, half that of Japan in 2004. Why?

The Japanese electronics industry is diversified, with each sector of the industry equally divided: consumer electronics, computers, telecommunications, automotive and semiconductor package substrates. The Japanese PCB industry is blessed by this diversification.

Business practices in Japan also help its PCB industry. Short lead time, higher standards of quality, higher technology requirements, low-volume/high-mix ordering and flexibility required in delivery deter neighboring Asian PCB producers from entering Japan in a big way.

On the contrary, the U.S. electronics market is heavily dependent on computers and telecommunication equipment. Now, military electronics is strong and nearly 20% of domestically produced PCBs go to military applications ($850 million). Automotive PCBs, which once made up more than 15% of U.S. PCB production, have all gone to Asia, practically speaking.

Today, a huge proportion of PCB assembly for U.S. PCB users takes place in China, which pushes EMS providers to purchase more PCBs in China. But Japan still does more than 80% of its PCB assembly in-house to keep Japanese PCB makers busy. The ups and downs of PCB orders in Japan are not as drastic as experienced in the U.S.

History Class

TABLE 1 is borrowed from Japan Electronics Packaging and Circuits Association (JPCA) statistics and highlighted by this author. The author basically agrees with this data, but he shall pinpoint some of discrepancies later.

Despite small faults, data collection is improving every year as Japanese PCB makers, who report in the beginning of each year, are becoming more cooperative. The most difficult task lies in measuring flex output. Japanese flex production is dominated by several large makers such as Nippon Mektron, Fujikura Corp., Sumitomo Denko, Nitto Denko , Sumitomo Bakelite, Maruwa Manufacturing Co. and Sony Chemical. All of these board makers have substantial overseas production. As a matter of fact, today, more than half of the output of Nippon Mektron and Fujikura is derived from overseas operations. In reporting their output, some of them mix domestic and overseas production because it is difficult to draw a line between the value of the front-end processes done in Japan and the back-end processes performed largely at overseas facilities.

Microvia board production is also difficult to quantify, particularly in the "module" (IC substrate) category. A substantial portion of microvia IC substrates is sold to Intel. Because of non-disclosure agreements between Intel and its suppliers, accurate data was not reported to JPCA until recently. But everyone knows approximately how much Intel is buying from Ibiden, Shinko Electric and NTK, as these suppliers seem to report more accurate figures.

After the Plaza Accord in 1985, the value of the Japanese yen skyrocketed. In order to cope with this difficult situation, the Japanese rushed to Southeast Asia for manufacturing. Today, a good portion of PCB production in Southeast Asia is made by Japanese transplants, to the tune of $1.3 billion per annum--about a half of SEA (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines) production. Today, more than 10% of China's PCB production is made by Japanese transplants there.

Approximately $300 million in overseas flex output contains flex assembly (TABLE 2). Whether or not the JPCA statistics in Table 1 contain this flex assembly value is not known. Microvia board production value is also flawed. Ibiden, CMK and Meiko are three major microvia multilayer board producers in China. Fujitsu Vietnam, Toppan-NEC Philippines and Hitachi Chemical Singapore also produce microvia multilayer boards. Daisho-Microline, a Japanese-Hong Kong JV in Huizhou, makes microvia boards. The value of microvia boards made by this JV is not accounted for because its Japanese partner, Daisho, is a minority shareholder. The production totals for these makers comes to about $200 million ($108 million in the table).

The IC substrate category is complex to understand. It is estimated that Ibiden produced about $180-$200 million worth of IC substrates in the Philippines, all of which were of microvia structure. Sumitomo Metal Electro Device in Malaysia had BGA and CSP production worth approximately $60 million in 2004. These add up to $260 million instead of the $148 million indicated in Table 1.

Overseas Production

It is unknown who reports to JPCA regarding Japan's overseas production, although this author can venture a good guess. TABLE 3 shows Japanese overseas production in 2004 by country, both according to JPCA. The total value (3,040.4 x 100 million yen) shown in this table does not match the value in Table 1 (2,709.4 x 100 million Yen). This is an error made by JPCA.

The number of makers reported does not add up to the total because some makers have multiple plants in different countries. In North America, there were two PCB makers: Ibiden at Elgin, IL, and Kyosha in Tijuana, Mexico, which was closed at the end of March.

In Europe, Nippon Mektron's JV, Freudenberg-Mektec, operates two plants in Germany and one in Budweise, Czech Republic. CMK had a single-sided board plant in Belgium, but it was closed last year.

In China, we find Ibiden, CMK (three locations plus the JV CMK-GBM), Nippon Mektron (three locations), Meiko (two plants in Nansha, a third one yet to be built, and one more to be built in Wuhan), YKC (one location and a JV), Fujikura, Cosmo Denshi, Daisho (a JV), Yamamoto Mfg., Sony Chemical, Nitto Denko, Sumitomo Denko (a collaborator and a new plant), Santa Light Metal, Shirai Denshi (a JV), Kyosha, Maruwa Mfg. and Matsushita Electric Works. This totals 17 plus two JVs with Japanese minority shares.

In Taiwan, there are four Japanese makers: Hitachi Chemical, Nippon Mektron (two plants), Tai Hong Circuit Industry (two plants plus one in China) and Panasonic Electronic Devices.

In Malaysia, there are five: Hokuriku Denko, CMK, Sumitomo Metal Electro Devices, Maruwa Mfg. and Elna.

In Singapore, Hitachi Chemical is the only Japanese PCB manufacturer. CMK got out of manufacturing and Senri went bankrupt and was bought by Circuit Plus (its manufacturing plant is in Malaysia and no longer considered Japanese). CMK maintains just a sales and service office in Singapore.

In the Philippines, there are six manufacturers: Ibiden, Toppan-NEC, Itabashi Seiki, Nippon Circuits, Sumitomo Denko (First Sumiden) and Sumitomo Bakelite.

The "others" mentioned by JPCA are probably Vietnam (Sumitomo Bakelite, Fujitsu, Nitto Denko), Thailand (Toei Denshi, Panasonic Electronic Devices, Nippon Mektron and Fujikura) and Indonesia (CMK and Kyosha). For those who have time, please count the total. The total enumeration of Japanese overseas PCB production by this author is about $2.815 billion, excluding the "assembly value" mainly involving flex.

PCB trade between Japan and Asian countries has increased dramatically (TABLES 4 and 5). About 30% of Japanese exports to Asia go to Intel, which operates in the Philippines, Malaysia and China. Most of the remaining exports go to Japanese OEMs, which indicates increased Japanese electronics manufacturing activities in non-Japan Asia.

More than a third of Japan's exports are IC substrates, mainly to Intel, Samsung Electronics and other semiconductor makers. Most exports are complex products that cannot be fabricated easily overseas.

Of about $1.3 billion in imports in 2004, less than half come from foreign board makers. In other words, a major portion of imports are from Japanese PCB makers operating in Asia. Unlike North America and Europe, which are bombarded with imports from Asian countries (very few from their own stocks), Japanese imports from non-Japanese PCB makers are relatively low, especially considering that Japan is surrounded by low-cost countries.

There are several reasons for this import/export imbalance. PCBs used in Japan generally require higher density, than those mass produced in non-Japan Asia. Quality requirements are also tough. Many Asian PCB makers lament that Japanese demand "international price with Japanese specs." Requirements for "green" PCBs are also increasing rapidly in Japan, much faster than in the rest of Asia. Short delivery time requirements challenge Asian makers. And most Asian makers are not efficiently set up to handle Japan's typical high-mix, low-volume orders. As Japanese PCB makers have been stepping up overseas expansion, it is a tough slope to climb for foreign makers to export into Japan, but the reward is high once they succeed.

Microvia Production

Although non-Japan Asian countries are rapidly growing their microvia production, Japan still leads this field with $2.3 billion (at 1.05 yen/$US exchange rate) in 2004, according to JPCA. Actually, this author believes the figure was more like $2.55 billion. Of the estimated $350 million rigid-flex boards produced in Japan, two thirds had microvia structures not accounted for by JPCA.

In 2004, Ibiden was the largest microvia board maker in the world, with approximate production of $1 billion, of which 75% was IC substrates. Ibiden makes a substantial portion of this in the Philippines (somewhere around $200 million, as mentioned). This author's estimate of microvia IC substrate production in Japan in 2004 is about $1.32 billion.

Overseas production of Japan's microvia boards in 2004 is estimated to have been $375 million (Ibiden had the lion's share). Therefore, the total Japanese microvia board production including domestic and overseas productions was about $2.925 billion in 2004, or about 47% of the total global production of $6.25 billion that includes IC substrates.

IBM Yasu (now Kyocera SLC Technology) developed the first microvia technology called Surface Laminar Circuits in the late 1980s and commercialized the technology in 1991. It was based on a photosensitive dielectric material, "Probimer 52," developed by Ciba Geigy. Today, few parts are fabricated with the "photovia" process and only in Japan. The majority of microvia boards are fabricated using the laservia process. However, in Japan, there are other variations of microvia processes, such as ALIVH, B2it, FACT-EV, PALAP, NMBI, etc. The total output by these technologies is estimated to be about $400 million ($320 million from ALIVH alone).

It is useful to compare microvia output for 2003 and 2004 (TABLES 6 and 7). It is estimated that in monetary terms, about 50% of microvia boards were those used for cell phones worldwide in both 2003 and 2004. However, the situation is different in Japan. Japan had much more diversified applications of microvia boards. Besides IC substrates that took up more than half of the microvia boards produced in Japan, cell phones, car navigation systems, digital still cameras, video cameras, battery drivers, camera modules, Bluetooth modules and a variety of other applications are found in Japan. More than 50 PCB makers are actively engaged in the manufacture of microvia boards in Japan with about 1,200 laser drilling machines.

Japan's PCB Manufacturers

A list of the top 2004 Japanese PCB makers is shown in TABLE 8. There are approximately 320 PCB makers in Japan. In 2004, the top 40 makers produced $8.647 billion in Japan ($11.59 billion including overseas) and $2.948 billion overseas. Since the total domestic production was about $10.23 billion, the $8.647 billion output by the top 40 makers accounted for 85%. When it comes to overseas production, nearly 100% was manufactured by the top 40 board makers. Their overseas production will continue to expand as they add new plants and expand existing operations. This is similar to the case of the large U.S. makers such as Multek, Viasystems, Sanmina-SCI, M-Flex, Innovex, 3M, Parlex, etc.

Other PCB makers will probably show up in the top 2005 list, such as Sharp Corp., which commenced a new flex operation. Japanese PCB makers are investing more than $1.2 billion in the 2005/2006 time frame--not only in China and other Asian countries, but also in Japan. This investment is for new plants, the expansion of existing plants and new equipment. This amount of investment will certainly bear fruit in the 2006/2007 period. There will be a new Ibiden plant in Beijing, a new Nippon Mektron plant in Suzhou, two new Meiko plants (one in Nansha and one in Wuhan), a new Sumitomo Denko plant in Suzhou, a new CMK plant in Thailand or Vietnam, and much more.

After the IT bubble burst in 2000, laminate production in Japan stayed low for a few years, though the volume kept inching up. Then, 2004 saw a big jump in production volume (TABLE 9).

Japanese laminate production is unique in that rigid FR-4 is much less than CEM-3. The majority of double-sided boards for consumer products are made of CEM-3 laminates. Paper phenolic laminate production volume has dwindled, with only one small subcontract board maker engaged in paper laminate production. Eventually, paper laminate production will disappear in Japan.

Matsushita Electric Works makes more than 500,000 [m.sup.2] per month in China (Suzhou) and 700,000 [m.sup.2] in Thailand (Ayuthaya). Sumitomo Bakelite makes about 1 million [m.sup.2] per month in Malaysia (Johor). Hitachi Chemical also makes about 1 million [m.sup.2] per month in Johor. The Sumitomo and Hitachi plants are five minutes apart. The total production volume by these three paper laminate makers is about the same as at the peak volume in Japan 15 years ago.

These three laminators make also glass epoxy laminates in China. Matsushita in Guangzhou (located very close to Taiwan's Grace Electron) has current capacity of about 200,000 [m.sup.2]/month. Matsushita closed its Oregon glass epoxy laminate plant in June 2005 and moved the majority of that equipment to 8uzhou. The Suzhou plant, scheduled to commence production in the end of 2006, will have glass epoxy laminate production capacity of 200,000 [m.sup.2]/month. In the meantime, Matsushita trimmed its Taiwan capacity in from 640,000 [m.sup.2]/month to 400,000 [m.sup.2]/month by closing one of the two factories in Hsinchu. This Matsushita operation, NPL, is a JV between Matsushita and Compeq. Matsushita operates two plants in Europe--one in Austria, one in Italy. Both are engaged in the manufacture of glass epoxy laminates.

Sumitomo Bakelite makes glass epoxy laminate and CEM-3 in Macao, where Nittobo has a glass cloth manufacturing operation (2 million [m.sup.2]/month). Hitachi Chemical commenced glass epoxy laminate production in Hong Kong in collaboration with Hong Kong-based Meadville Group (Mica-Ava). Hitachi recently expanded its capacity to 150,000 [m.sup.2]/month. Hitachi's laminates made in Hong Kong are high-Tg and halogen-free laminates.

As the investment by Japanese PCB makers is increasing in China, Risho Kogyo (little known outside Japan) also constructed a laminate plant in Suzhou. The average annual revenue growth of Japanese PCB makers in China is expected to be between 13 and 14%, according to JPCA inquiry. The growth of laminate consumption by Japanese PCB makers in China is expected to be in the vicinity of 8 to 9%.

Current monthly production capacity of rigid PCBs in China by Japanese makers stands at about 300,000 [m.sup.2], of which 20% is for microvia boards. There are several PTH board makers in China that have similar production capacity per month, but the value of the PCBs Japan produces seems to be higher than that of conventional PTH boards.

RoHS and WEEE 

The Japanese to take the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directives seriously. Usage of halogen-flee laminates and solder resist is becoming more pronounced each year. JPCA inquired about the proportion of halogen-flee laminates to the total in Japan in 2001. About 3% of glass epoxy laminates and 5% of paper laminates were halogen-free in 2001. Since then, for some reason, JPCA stopped making inquiries regarding halogen-free laminates.

Although the accurate percentage of halogen-free laminates out of all laminates produced in Japan is not known, it is considered to be in the vicinity of 10 to 15% in 2005, more in paper laminates than epoxy glass laminates, according to the laminators interviewed.

Use of lead-free soldering is more in the limelight than halogen-free substances because the WEEE and RoHS directives forbid the use of six substances, including lead, as of July 1, 2006 in the European Union. Many variations of lead-free solder have been suggested and used. However, the SnAgCu combination seems to be the most popular, making up probably 90% of today's lead-free solder.

Due to the higher soldering temperatures required compared to that of PbSn solder, SnAgCu solder causes some problems--damage to components, laminates and solder tanks. However, one American EMS engineer recently commented that among 20 or so solders he tried, the top five solders from the viewpoint of performance (wettability, repairbility and reliability in soldered joint) came from Japanese suppliers.

It is recognized that 100% lead-free solder is not possible. So the world seems to have accepted a final lead content below 0.1%, at least for the time being.

Various attempts are being made in Japan to improve lead-free soldering. A more highly active flux to compensate for the poorer wettability of lead-free solder is one idea, but in solving one problem it creates another: worse long-term reliability. SnZn solder is being investigated in an effort to reduce high soldering temperature of SnAgCu solder, whose melting point is between 220[degrees]C and 230[degrees]C.

Although the PCB industry in Japan saw healthy growth in 2004, the business in the first half of 2005 was lukewarm. FIGURES 1 and 2 (online) are borrowed from Custer Consulting and depict shipment trends compiled by JEITA, which covers about 70% of the total shipments in Japan.

Although Japan's PCB shipments started to decline around August 2004 and stayed fairly flat for the next nine months, there is a sign of activities from the end of the second quarter of 2005. The author predicts plus or minus zero growth for Japan's PCB industry in 2005, considering a poor first half but a reasonably strong second half.

Mass production of commodity PCBs will continue to migrate to China and other low-cost Asian countries. Technology development is the key element for the Japanese PCB industry, not only for survival but also for growth. With the loss of nearly all of the captive shops that provided much of the R&D in the past, the collaboration among PCB, equipment and material makers are an absolute necessity for the development of advanced technologies.

These manufacturers are doing exactly that. Such collaboration is visible in laser drilling technologies, AOI equipment, laser direct imaging, more stable halogen-free laminates, lead-free soldering, production equipment of flex (reel-to-reel), and adhesiveless FCCL, to name a few. In the two years from 2005 through 2006, Japanese PCB makers will spend about $1.2 billion for expansion and new plants in Japan and abroad. The fruits of this investment will come after 2006 and Japan will still be able to maintain above 30% share of the global PCB production for the foreseeable future.

Yes, China's production will exceed that of Japan, but 90% of China's production comes from foreign transplants, including Japanese board makers. Japan's presence in China will continue to increase, considering the heavy investment being made there.

Ed.: The entire article with all figures can be found at www.pcdandm.com.

DR. HAYAO NAKAHARA (nakanti@ yahoo.com) is president of N.T. Information (Huntington, NY) and a contributing editor at PCD&M.

TABLE 1. Japan's PCB production from 2000-2005 *

PCB CATEGORY                                 2000     2001     2002

Rigid    SSB                                 648      421       341
         DSB                                 2190     1754     1567
         MLB                   MLB TTL       5562     4302     3518
                                  4L         1922     1487     1349
                                  6L         1869     1551     1101
                                  8L         894      660       724
                                 10+L        876      604       345
         Microvia                 4L          40       25       16
         (included in MLB)        6L         653      526       355
                                  8L         359      373       509
                                 10+L        138      107       77
                             microvia TTL    1190     1031      941
         Rigid Total                         8400     6477     5426

Flex     SSB                                 1085     830       887
         DSB                                 542      492       542
         MLB                                 142      105       191
         Microvia            (inclusive)     0.4                1.5
         Rigid-Flex                           56       23       41
         Flex Total                          1825     1450     1661

Module   Rigid                               2297     1907     1837
         Tape                                494      324       674
         Microvia            (inclusive)     292      538      1063
         Module Total                        2791     2231     2511
         Microvia Total                     1482.4    1569    2005.5
         GRAND TOTAL                        13016    10158     9598

PCB CATEGORY                                 2003     2004    2005(F)

Rigid    SSB                                 311      311       299
         DSB                                 1529     1578     1590
         MLB                   MLB TTL       3561     3665     3902
                                  4L         1333     1321     1364
                                  6L         1084     1081     1134
                                  8L         795      840       951
                                 10+L        349      423       446
         Microvia                 4L          42       58       86
         (included in MLB)        6L         426      442       474
                                  8L         527      600       700
                                 10+L         65       65       70
                             microvia TTL    1060     1165     1330
         Rigid Total                         5401     5554     5791

Flex     SSB                                 955      871       923
         DSB                                 806      934      1060
         MLB                                 282      246       274
         Microvia            (inclusive)     0.2      12.4      17
         Rigid-Flex                          201      191       240
         Flex Total                          2244     2242     2497

Module   Rigid                               1848     2063     2141
         Tape                                803      884       992
         Microvia            (inclusive)     1058     1237     1326
         Module Total                        2651     2947     3467
         Microvia Total                     2118.2   2414.4    2673
         GRAND TOTAL                        10296    10745     11755

Source: JPCA & N.T. Information Ltd. * In hundreds of millions of yen.

TABLE 2. Japan's overseas production by board type

PCB TYPE       N0. OF MAKERS   100 MILLION YEN   $US MILLIONS

SSB                 11              494.3            449
DSB                 12              305.7            278
MLB                 11              478.9            435
Microvia             6              118.5            108
Rigid Total                        1278.9            1162
Flex                 8             1,267.1          1,152
IC Substrate         2              163.3            148
TOTAL               24             2,709.4          2,463

Source: JPCA & N.T. Information Ltd.

TABLE 3. Japan's 2004 overseas production by country

COUNTRY       N0.OF MAKERS     VALUE       VALUE     NO. OF MAKERS
                REPORTED     100 M YEN   $ MILLION   ACTUAL (NTI)

N. America         1           30.0        28.6            2
Europe             2           62.2        59.2            2
China              11         1076.3      1025.0          17
Taiwan             4           328.0       312.4           4
Malaysia           7           261.2       248.8           5
Singapore          2           30.0        28.6            1
Philippines        4           428.2       407.8           6
Others             11          824.5       785.2           8
TOTAL              26         3,040.4     2,895.6         30

Source: JPCA & N.T. Information Ltd.

TABLE 4. Japan's PCB export history *

REGION        1998    1999    2000    2001    2002    2003    2004

N&S America   1,312   1,398   1,301    791     604     659     437
Europe         157     385     426     280     189     130     180
Asia           804    1,433   1,750   1,361   1,335   1,399   2,639
Others          2       8      33      81      322     364     31
Total         2,275   3,224   3,510   2,513   2,450   2,552   3,287
TOTAL ($M)    2,106   2,985   3,250   2,327   2,268   2,363   3,043

Source: JPCA & N.T Information Ltd. * In hundreds of millions of yen.
108 yen/$US conversion used.

TABLE 5. Japan's PCB trade history *

                    2004              2002              2000
TRADE
PARTNERS      Export   Import   Export   Import   Export   Import

China          718      555      553      291      359      194
S.Korea        507      148      361       79      355       61
Hong Kong      352       14      221       13      254       12
Taiwan         310      279      138      190      245      142
Philippines    257       60      287       66      327       76
Thailand       182      141       89       53      106       52
Malaysia       140       9       228       7       252       8
Vietnam        122       1        41       1        3        0
Singapore       85       6        89       5       172       3
U.S.A.         329       39      200       20      326       24
Others         257      140      243       88      562       50
TOTAL          3259     1392     2450     813      2961     622
$ Millions     3018     1290     2268     753      2742     576

Source: JPCA & N. T. Information Ltd. * In hundreds of millions of
yen.

TABLE 6. Japan's HDI microvia board production in 2003

LAYER              100         $
COUNT           MILLION Y   MILLION

4                 42.4       40.4
6                 425.7      405.4
8                 527.4      502.6
10+               64.6       61.5
Subtotal         1060.1     1009.9
Flex microvia      0.2        0.2
IC Substrate     1057.9     1007.0
TOTAL            2118.2     2017.1

LAYER           [meters.sup.2]   $/[meters.sup.2]   $/sq. in
COUNT              in 1000s

4                   103.0              360           0.233
6                   740.9              547           0.355
8                   747.1              673           0.437
10+                  47.8             1,287          0.835
Subtotal            1648.1             613           0.398
Flex microvia        0.2              1,000          0.992
IC Substrate        582.4             1,652          1.072
TOTAL               2230.7             904           0.587

Source: JPCA & N.T. Information Ltd. Note: In 2004 exchange rate.

TABLE 7. Japan's HDI microvia board production in 2004

LAYER             100         $
COUNT           MILLION   Y MILLION

4                58.3       55.5
6                441.5      420.5
8                599.5      571.0
10+              65.2       62.1
Subtotal        1164.5     1109.1
Flex microvia    12.4       11.5
IC Substrate    1236.6     1178.0
TOTAL           2413.5     2298.6

LAYER           [meters.sup.2]   $/[meters.su[.2]   $/sq. in
COUNT              in 1000s

4                   140.3              396           0.257
6                   809.9              519           0.337
8                   814.4              701           0.455
10+                  67.9              889           0.577
Subtotal            1832.5             605           0.393
Flex microvia        9.5               1210          0.786
IC Substrate        743.4             1,585          1.028
TOTAL               2585.4             889           0.577

Source: JPCA & N.T. Information Ltd.

TABLE 8. Top 40 Japanese PCB makers, in millions of U.S. dollars

RANKING                         2003     2004      2004
                               TOTAL    TOTAL    OVERSEAS

1  Ibiden                       1076     1226      400
2  Nippon Mektron               1175     1205      540
3  CMK                          1099     1105      240
4  Shinko Electric Industry     635      715
5  Hitachi Chemical             657      658       240
6  Fujikura                     419      540       380
7  Panasonic Elec Devices       333      340        50
8  Nitto Denko                  300      339        85
9  Meiko Electronics            260      335       140
10 Kyoden PCB Group             276      321        55
11 Toppan-NEC                   314      295        40
12 Sumitomo Denko               267      285        90
13 MCS (Mitsui Mining)          245      257
14 Mitsusbishi GC Group         240      253       140
15 Daisho Denshi                240      251
16 Elna                         187      228        35
17 Sumitomo Bakelite            210      219        68
18 Sony Chemical                210      219        80
19 Shirai Denshi                175      219        90
20 Fujitsu Interconnect Tech    232      214        54
21 Shindo Denshi                200      210
22 NTK                          170      175
23 Maruwa Corp.                 109      171        63
24 Shinko Mfg                   161      169
25 Kyosha                       102      138        61
26 Sanwa Denshi Ckt             127      133
27 Eastern Cc Ltd.               95      125
28 Yamamoto Mfg                 116      124        18
29 Casio Micro-Electronics      106      120
30 Arrk PCB Group                0       111
31 Airex Inc.                   152      109
32 Sakai Denshi                  95       98
33 Itabashi Seiki                95       98        10
34 Yamanashi MEW                 92       97        10
35 Hitachi Cable                 86       95
36 Santa Light Metal             89       93        4
37 Kyocera SLC Tech              82       90
38 Kyoei Sangyo                  74       78
39 Nihon Auto Giken              73       70
40 Hokuriku Denko                65       67        55
   TOP 40 TOTAL                10,639   11,595    2,948

RANKING                        OVERSEAS PLANT
                               LOCATIONS

1  Ibiden                      China, Philippines, US
2  Nippon Mektron              Taiwan, Thailand, China, Europe
3  CMK                         China, Malay, Indonesia
4  Shinko Electric Industry    Large Intel business
5  Hitachi Chemical            Taiwan, Singapore
6  Fujikura                    Thailand, China
7  Panasonic Elec Devices      Taiwan, Thailand
8  Nitto Denko                 China, Vietnam
9  Meiko Electronics           China
10 Kyoden PCB Group            Vietnam
11 Toppan-NEC                  Philippines
12 Sumitomo Denko              China, Philippines
13 MCS (Mitsui Mining)         No. 1 in COF
14 Mitsusbishi GC Group        Taiwan, China
15 Daisho Denshi               JV in China
16 Elna                        Malaysia
17 Sumitomo Bakelite           Vietnam, Philippines
18 Sony Chemical               China (flex)
19 Shirai Denshi               China JV
20 Fujitsu Interconnect Tech   Vietnam
21 Shindo Denshi               Similar to MCS
22 NTK                         Collaborate w/ Nanya
23 Maruwa Corp.                Indonesia, Malay, CN
24 Shinko Mfg                  Sumitomo Mining
25 Kyosha                      China, Indonesia
26 Sanwa Denshi Ckt            Combined 4 units
27 Eastern Cc Ltd.             60% CSP
28 Yamamoto Mfg                China
29 Casio Micro-Electronics     Reel-to-Reel FBGA
30 Arrk PCB Group              Newly created
31 Airex Inc.                  Tokyo Computer SVC
32 Sakai Denshi                Subcon for Sharp
33 Itabashi Seiki              Philippines
34 Yamanashi MEW               China
35 Hitachi Cable               2-metal flex BGA
36 Santa Light Metal           China (flex back end)
37 Kyocera SLC Tech            $180M new plant
38 Kyoei Sangyo                Struggling
39 Nihon Auto Giken            Masslam
40 Hokuriku Denko              STH operation, Malay
   TOP 40 TOTAL

Source: N.T. Information Ltd. Note: 105 yen/$US conversion used.

TABLE 9. Japan's domestic laminate production, 2000-2004

CATEGORY    2000     2001     2002     2003     2004

Paper      2,935    1,174    2,547    1,568     688
CEM-3      10,802   8,552    9,062    8,222    8,577
FR-4       3,885    3,074    3,408    3,599    3,837
ML         21,995   15,337   15,587   16,580   19,701
Masslam    3,327    2,006    2,051    2,054    2,180
Prepreg    35,366   26,321   27,118   30,467   36,370
TOTAL      78,310   56,464   59,773   62,490   71,353

Source: Japan Synthetic Resin Association. Note: Units
are [meters.sup.2] (in thousands)