Trade show Overcapacity: A Review of the PCB Industry's 'March Madness'

摘要

Although most PCB industry analysts differ when it comes to predicting the long-awaited recovery, there is uniform agreement as to what caused―or at least worsened―the downturn: overcapacity. In the crazy days of the late 1990s, when the telecomms market appeared to need an infinite amount of printed circuits, and companies like Cisco Systems talked of buying $2 billion worth of boards per year, the thought that there could be too much PCB capacity seemed absurd. Instead, the mantra of the day was "If we build it, they will come." What a difference a few years make. Today, our industry has experienced massive contraction, consolidation, and closures. Yet, even in the face of reduced attendance and participation, the number of the world's PCB trade shows continues to grow. At both the CPCA Show (Shanghai) and IPC Expo (Long Beach, CA), there is a growing consensus that there are now simply too many trade shows for exhibitors to attend. One exhibitor told CircuiTree "We can't afford to attend three trade shows a year, and yet we can't afford to look like we're not a global player, either. Our competition would use that against us." The alphabet soup of trade shows―now totalling eight―has many people in our industry a bit breathless. IPC Expo (Long Beach), HKPCA/IPC (Guangzhou), JPCA (Tokyo), TPCA (Taipei), CPCA (Shanghai), KPCA (Seoul), EPC (Cologne), and Productronica (Munich) have all stretched the limited budgets of exhibitors that claim a worldwide presence, In light of a struggling electronics industry, can we really afford eight shows? Instead, might the WECC consider sanctioning one show per region, per year in Asia, North America, and Europe, respectively?