PCB Maker Nittobo Suffers Major Fire That Could Drive Hardware Price Hike
This year everything seemed to be more or less calm within the industry, with the exception of the coronavirus. Those who have suffered the most from COVID have been Foxconn and Samsung, but for the rest there have not been excessive problems. Everything was fine until a fire broke out at a Nittobo production plant. It sure sounds like nothing to you, but Nittobo is a leading hardware PCB manufacturer.
The Nittobo plant in Fukushima, Japan, has suffered a major fire affecting only one plant. This company ships its highly saturated ABF substrate glass cloth production lines. Such a fire could be a big problem, since it could generate shortages and rise in prices.
[irp]PCB plant fire could cause hardware price rise
All devices require a PCB where all the electronic components rest. Motherboard, processor, RAM, power supply, SSD and other components have a PCB. So the fire at the Nittobo plant, which was already saturated, affected supplies. When there is a shortage, automatically the price of products increases.
Nittobo is specialized in substrates with a low coefficient of thermal expansion. It is one of the most important manufacturers in the world, so the market will end up being a blow to the industry. If this year was no longer good, it seems that it is going to get even more unfavorable.
In addition to the fire affecting the facilities and machinery, the extinction of it has been a problem. Various machinery would be flooded after efforts by firefighters to put out the fire. While the exact scope is still some time away, it is estimated that the production problems would last about six months.
Unimicron Tecnology, Nan Ya PCB and Kinsus Interconnect have not yet received a statement from Nittobo. It is possible that when they have a final report with all the defects, the rest of the manufacturers will be informed. We will see how this fire affects the industry.
Source: DigiTimes
