PCB007 Magazine

PCB007-July2021

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10 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2021 Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team In this interview with Ventec's Mark Good- win, he discusses the rising inflation hitting the electronics industry at the same moment as shortages of copper and other raw materials. He believes that, while the PCB industry has endured cycles like this before, this one feels different. Nolan Johnson: We're seeing indicators that we can expect a cycle of inflation in our industry and the wider economy in general. Mark Goodwin: Yes, I think it is wider than our industry. Dan Feinberg: And I think it's more than ex- pecting. I think we're in it. Goodwin: Absolutely correct. Johnson: For people who have been in the in- dustry fewer than 20 years, they've never seen a cycle like this in electronics. Goodwin: ose who were here in 2000 have seen it. is comes around every now and then in our industry. I think this one's slightly dif- ferent, though. e last one was driven purely by an uptick in demand. is one is an uptick in demand, but the demand uptick is going to get worse. Just look at 5G. We have a lot of 5G infrastructure-type things going on now with the rollout. ere will be more devices being built, and they will all need PCBs as well. is is not going away anytime soon. At the same time, I worry about copper foil because, while we have the whole decarbonization of global economies and a move toward e-vehicles and green energy, we need to store that energy in batteries. I've seen some frightening figures on the dis- parity between the requirement for copper for all of these things and the availability of cop- per. We already know that copper foil produc- tion is pretty much in balance with supply and demand. But the demand is going to go up far faster in the next three to five years than the capacity, and there are some real constraints on capacity. ere are only really one or two companies in the world that make the plat- Riding the Wave of Copper Inflation Pricing

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