Copper clad plate ushered in the first price increase this year, according to industry news

Copper clad plate ushered in the first price increase this year, according to industry news, the recent upward price of copper clad plate is one of the main incentives to open the current round of price increases. Under the background of rising raw material prices, a number of copper clad plate industry manufacturers through product price increase transmission cost pressure, among which, the head of the big factory Jiantao laminated board (01888.HK) board prices have been fully increased, Jiantao Group issued a price increase letter on March 19: Affected by the sharp rise in copper prices, under cost pressure, the company increased the price of all materials by 10 RMB/piece, and the price increase is expected to be 5%-10%. Shengyi Technology (600183.SH), ultrasonic electronics (000823.SZ) and other A-share companies told reporters that the follow-up does not rule out adjusting product prices according to market conditions. In addition, according to the price adjustment letter of the industry manufacturers, since March 20, the factory price of all plates of Willy Bond electronic technology has been raised by 6 RMB/piece, and Shandong Jinbao Electronic has adjusted the price of copper clad plates: CEM-1/22F each price increase of 10 RMB.
AI server is an important downstream application of high-speed copper clad plate, is expected to maintain rapid growth in the next few years, the industry pointed out that the CCL consumption of AI server is about 8 times that of the general server. The Nvidia AI server is expected to further increase the CCL usage after the 2H24 upgrade to the B100 solution. Copper foil is the main raw material for the manufacture of copper clad plate, the cost accounts for 30%-50%, and the price of copper foil is greatly affected by the fluctuation of copper price (the price of copper foil is determined in accordance with the principle of "copper price + processing fee").
According to Huatai Securities researcher Zhuang Tingzhou on February 7 research report pointed out that copper clad plate (CCL) is the main raw material for the preparation of PCB, according to the health Yi Electronics prospectus, the cost of copper clad plate accounted for 25% of the total cost of PCB, copper clad plate can be divided into rigid and flexible two categories according to mechanical strength. According to Prismark, in 2022, the proportion of special and special copper clad plates (including high-frequency, high-speed, IC packaging substrates, etc.) in the world has increased to 30%, and it is expected to continue to grow with the development of high-end demand such as downstream A1, automotive electronics, and 5G.
According to Prismark, among the top 23 rigid copper-clad plate manufacturers in the world in 2022 sales, there are 7 domestic enterprises in China, and domestic and Taiwan enterprises account for 23.4% and 31.3% of the total sales of rigid copper-clad plates, respectively. In 2022, among the top 13 special rigid copper-clad plate manufacturers in the world, only Shengyi Technology is a domestic enterprise in China, and domestic/European and American/Japanese enterprises account for 5%, 9% and 26% of the total sales of special copper-clad plates, respectively. It is worth noting that China mainly produces low value-added ordinary copper-clad plates, and high-end copper-clad plates still need to rely heavily on imports.
In 2023, the overall growth rate of the PCB industry is 15%, affected by the low PCB prosperity, the price of the copper clad plate industry is at a low level, and some manufacturers have serious losses. In 2024, PCB industry as a whole downstream demand has recovered, the current major CCL manufacturers in the first quarter of the operation rate has increased, and the recent copper price upward, CCL plant price increase power is obvious, Zhongtai securities electronics team believes that CCL is expected to enter the dilemma reversal, into the price repair stage.
The industry pointed out that AI has gradually increased, and PCB/CCL has benefited deeply. At present, AI demand is rising rapidly, AI servers and switches are expected to show high double-digit growth in the next few years, of which PCB/CCL value is high, technical barriers are deep, and relevant stocks are expected to usher in a new round of growth opportunities. In addition, the traditional PCB/CCL industry is at the bottom of the cycle, with the macroeconomic recovery, consumer electronics is expected to recover in 2024, and the industry chain manufacturers are expected to return quickly.
The relevant person in charge of a listed company told reporters that the adjustment of the price of copper clad plate products will consider the cost, but it is not that the cost can be increased, but also to consider the specific order, product demand and application scenarios, and the bargaining situation with customers.
In contrast, the overall market environment in the past year, affected by factors such as declining product demand, expanding overcapacity, and intensifying industry competition, the shadow of "price reduction and destocking" has clouded the industry, and many copper clad enterprises have a difficult time.
South Asia New Materials, Jin An Guoji (002636.SZ), Chaohua Technology (002288.SZ), Huacheng New Materials (603186.SH) and other enterprises in 2023 annual performance are pre-loss, Shengyi Technology is expected to reduce net profit by 281 million rmb  481 million RMB. Kingboard's annual turnover and annual profit attributable to company holders fell year-on-year last year. In response to changes in performance, these manufacturers without exception all mentioned that "product sales prices have fallen significantly."
Now the price of copper clad sheet is rising again, or the beginning of the market rebound, and the industry will usher in repair opportunities.
For the future, Kingboard said that the downward market in the past two years, PCB and end customers are consuming inventory, which has basically bottomed out. Export orders are gradually recovering, the demand for new energy vehicles and their surrounding products such as charging piles is growing rapidly, the popularity of clean energy such as photovoltaic, and the widespread application of artificial intelligence and big data technology, and it is expected that the copper clad panel market will gradually stabilize and rebound.