The growth of the PKG business in 2021Q1 has mainly come from the increased supply of mobile AP’s (BGA) and laptop CPUs (FCBGA). On the other hand, the revenue of RFPCB has been deteriorating due to decreased demand from international customers for OLED. On the whole, the substrate business of SEMCO has grown significantly since the second quarter of 2019 with an increase in global demands (an average quarterly annual growth rate of more than 35%). At this stage, PCB　business has gradually transformed into a mainly substrate-reliant model. 

 

LG-Innotek's substrate product is classified under the Substrate & Material Department, accounting for about 10% of the overall company revenue. After withdrawing from HDI, it has continued to develop substrate and mainly supplied LG for terminal products, whereas its accounted-for proportion of PCB is already 100%. Moreover, the annual revenue rate in the first quarter of 2021 has reached 35%.

 

Daeduck’s PCB three business divisions are BGA/FC, Module SiP, and MLB. Among these, the primary products of Module SiP are FPC and HDI after it withdrew from HDI. The proportion of Substrate, FPC, and Multilayer revenues achieved in the first quarter of 2021 are 59.6%, 25.8%, and 14.7% respectively.

 

On the whole, only a limited number of companies retain production lines in 2021 even though the withdrawal from HDI business continued in 2020, and it is estimated that the proportion of HDI in overall Korean PCB should decrease to 5-10% in 2021. Although flexible boards (including rigid-flex boards) are also regarded as the top three PCB products in Korea, growth in 2020 was not significant despite increased international market demands due to fierce competition. As it enters 2021, there is no reason to expect significant growth given the competitive conditions, albeit not to the extent of a recession.