PCB007 Magazine

PCB007-Mar2023

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MARCH 2023 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 81 rience more challenges. Just think about cop- per, the raw material, and energy as a whole. We have to figure this out because in the near future there can be some surprises, and I don't mean good ones. Goodwin: Surprises are never good in business. The focus of the supply chain management from our point of view has been on maintain- ing the supply of materials from manufacturer to the user. But you have another supply chain to control as well— the supply of your raw materials to your manufacturing. Goodwin: Ab solutely. Didier touched on cop- per, and heavy copper is an interesting con- versation now. Let's start with the price. You have the LME pr ice of raw copper, which interestingly is up by more than 10-12% in the last month, and I think it's head- ing for the highs of the last 18 months. We'll see it over $10,000 a ton again. S o, t h i s i s n u m b e r one: r aw co p p er. We have the energ y c r i sis in the world, and electrodeposited foil is all energy and c o p - p e r. T h i s c r e ates two problems. We have huge demand. Ev e n t h o u g h t h e m a r kets are somewhat quiet at the moment , there's still a huge, fundamental, underlying demand for copper foil, not just for electronics, but also for batteries. Now battery foils are thin foils. Didier, what was the typical thickness of bat- teries? Mauve: 10 micron and below. Goodwin: Yeah, 9-, 10-, 5-, 6-micron, things like this. e volume for us is 18 microns. We're already twice what the battery guys are. e output per square meter is significant. Mauve: And the treatment on batteries is easier. Goodwin: Yes, treatment on the batteries, treatment on ours. en you get to heavy cop- pers. A lot of the applications now require heavy copper because there are a lot of amps and thermals to manage. ird, you have to find somebody who's prepared to make cop- per heavier than one ounce these days. One ounce is now a heavy copper. But with some of these applications—like ther- mal management—have four-ounce, five-ounce, six-ounce copper. So, you have copper and energ y, and the premium to get s o m e o n e to m a k e s i x- ounce for you instead of 18 micron, a half-ounce copper foil or thinner. In the end, that comes down to relationships. at was useful to us in Munich because we ended up actually buying copper at the electronica show. It wasn't a huge quantity, but it was 15 tons of six-ounce copper foil from people that we know very well. Because we behave in the management of our own supply chains in a good way, they were willing to help us. You get back what you put in when it comes to relationships. Goodwin: My point is that it isn't all about money now; it's way more than that. Well again, you've stressed it's about relationships all the way down the line. plus management capability and intelligence. A lot of the applications now require heavy copper because there are a lot of amps and thermals to manage.

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