01
Toubao Research Institute’s forecast for the flexible printed circuit board (FPC) market size
From 2018 to 2023, the market size of the flexible printed circuit board (FPC) industry grew from 3.738 billion RMB to 51.982 billion RMB, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 69.29%. It is expected that from 2024 to 2028, the market size of the flexible printed circuit board (FPC) industry will grow from 71.897 billion RMB to 206.099 billion RMB, with a CAGR of 30.12%.
The historical changes in the market size of the flexible printed circuit board (FPC) industry are due to the following reasons:
The technical characteristics of FPC determine its significant growth potential.
FPC and PCB are two common types of electronic circuit boards. Compared to PCB, FPC offers greater flexibility and softness, allowing for free bending, folding, and rolling, enabling flexible layouts in three-dimensional space, saving space, and adapting to various complex shapes and spatial constraints. This makes it suitable for applications in space-constrained environments that require increased design freedom, such as smartphones, wearable devices, medical equipment, automotive electronics, and aerospace. Additionally, the soft and lightweight characteristics of FPC make it an ideal material for lightweight design. As consumer demand for portable devices and efficient battery life in vehicles increases, FPC faces significant growth potential, with the industry market size showing a year-on-year upward trend.
Increasing application scenarios for FPC.
Thanks to the flexibility, lightweight nature, reliability, and excellent electrical performance of FPC, its application scenarios are continuously expanding, particularly in innovative developments in consumer electronics, automotive electronics, medical devices, industrial automation, aerospace, new energy and storage, and 5G communication. For example, in the smartphone sector, FPC can be applied in modules such as antennas, camera modules, screen connections, fingerprint recognition, battery connections, and wireless charging. In automotive electronics, FPC can be used in battery management systems (BMS), sensors, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and in-vehicle entertainment systems. In the medical field, FPC can be applied in portable medical devices and wearable health monitoring devices. The diversification of application scenarios drives continuous growth in FPC market demand.
The future changes in the market size of the flexible printed circuit board (FPC) industry are mainly due to:
Technological transformation towards intelligence provides new opportunities for FPC development.
As the technological transformation towards intelligence deepens, emerging market demands for mid-to-high-end smartphones represented by foldable screen phones, new energy vehicles, and wearable electronic devices provide new opportunities for FPC development. In the smartphone sector, in 2023, the domestic market in China saw mobile phone shipments of 289 million units, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%, with smartphones accounting for 95.6% of shipments. The shipment of 5G phones reached 240 million units, a year-on-year increase of 11.9%, while foldable screen phone shipments reached approximately 7.007 million units, a year-on-year increase of 114.5%. The shipment of foldable screen phones has maintained a year-on-year growth rate of over 100% for four consecutive years since the first product was launched in 2019. In the new energy vehicle sector, from 2018 to 2023, the sales of new energy vehicles in China grew from 1.256 million to 9.495 million, with a CAGR of 50%. These rapidly developing automation and intelligent application fields will drive comprehensive upgrades of hardware and software systems, ushering in a new wave of development for FPC, which possesses lightweight, bendable, and high-density wiring properties.
The advantages of integration and lightweight design drive the continuous increase in FPC penetration.
Integration and lightweight design are the two core advantages of FPC. In terms of integration, FPC can reduce the number of connectors or traditional wiring harnesses, simplifying the assembly process. It can also be designed as a multi-layer structure, creating metallized holes through drilling and plating to achieve conductive connections between different layers, enabling high-density wiring in limited space, reducing the distance between electronic components, and improving overall performance. In terms of lightweight design, FPC uses lightweight substrates such as polyimide (PI) films, which can reduce the space and weight occupied by devices. For instance, if a vehicle uses FPC flexible flat wiring harnesses instead of traditional wiring harnesses, the overall weight of the harness will be reduced by about 50%, and the volume will decrease by about 60%. Therefore, leveraging the advantages of integration and lightweight design, the penetration rate of FPC in end applications such as smartphones and automotive electronics will continue to increase.
02
According to analysis by Toubao Research Institute, the competitive landscape of the flexible printed circuit board (FPC) industry is as follows:
Currently, there are many participants in the FPC industry market, and China has become a major producer of FPC globally, but overseas manufacturers have a competitive advantage in the high-end FPC product sector.
The FPC industry presents the following tiered situation: the first tier includes companies such as Japan’s Kinsus, Sumitomo Electric, America’s M-FLEX, and Taiwan’s Zhen Ding; the second tier includes companies like Unimicron, Dongshan Precision, Jingwang Electronics, and Hongxin Electronics; the third tier includes companies like Danbond Technology and Shanda Electronics.
The formation of the competitive landscape in the flexible printed circuit board (FPC) industry is mainly due to the following reasons:
There are many participants in the FPC industry market.
The global market for FPC has many participants, mainly distributed in Japan, Europe, America, South Korea, and China. The FPC industry in Europe and America started earlier, with production experience and equipment at a globally leading level, dominating the high-precision FPC product market, with representative companies such as M-FLEX and DuPont in the USA. Japan was the first to apply FPC in the civilian sector, with a mature upstream and downstream industrial chain, and production processes and quality control at a global leading level, represented by companies like Kinsus, Sumitomo Electric, and Nitto Denko. South Korean FPC manufacturers have rapidly developed under the influence of the rise of domestic electronics giants, driven by the surge in demand for mobile communication devices, with representative companies like InterFlex and Si Flex. In China, Taiwanese companies such as Zhen Ding, Jialianyi, and Taijun have strong competitiveness due to their geographical and production capacity advantages, while the mainland’s industry has developed relatively late, still lacking in R&D technology and high-end talent. Currently, leading companies such as Unimicron, Dongshan Precision, and Hongxin Electronics are rapidly advancing in the localization process.
Chinese mainland FPC manufacturers have relatively weak international competitiveness.
From the industry structure perspective, the FPC field was initially dominated by Europe and America. As production costs in these regions increased, global FPC capacity gradually shifted to Asia, primarily Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. In recent years, due to China’s significant manufacturing cost advantages and large demand scale, overseas FPC manufacturers have been building factories in China, while domestic manufacturers have gradually formed scaled production and sales. The overall FPC output value in China now accounts for over 50% of the global total, making it a major producer of FPC worldwide. However, in terms of FPC manufacturing technology, there is still a high dependence on imports for high-end flexible copper-clad laminates (FCCL) and polyimide films (PI), resulting in relatively weak international competitiveness for mainland Chinese enterprises in the high-end FPC manufacturing sector.
As the downstream application fields of FPC continue to expand, there are increasing demands for FPC manufacturing processes and technologies. Leading domestic FPC manufacturers are expected to leverage their strong R&D capabilities and customer loyalty to gain a competitive advantage, accelerating the localization process of high-end FPC products and continuously enhancing the international competitiveness of domestic manufacturers.
The changes in the competitive landscape of the flexible printed circuit board (FPC) industry are mainly due to the following reasons:
Significant technological advancements among leading domestic FPC manufacturers.
Since the 21st century, domestic FPC companies in China have rapidly developed amid the global industry shift towards China. By 2017, a complete FPC industry system was initially established, and FPC process technology gradually matured, especially among leading manufacturers. For instance, leading manufacturer Unimicron has continuously focused on and delved into product technology R&D in the electronic circuit field, achieving high process capabilities and industrialization for products such as touch pressure FPC modules, dynamic bending FPC modules, ultra-long size FPC components, and high-speed low-loss FPC modules. Hongxin Electronics has integrated advanced international automation equipment to achieve a unified manufacturing process for key component processing, product assembly, online automatic testing, final inspection, and warehousing, forming one of the most advanced FPC production lines in the country, with production and efficiency metrics leading the industry, continuously strengthening its international competitiveness.
Strong customer loyalty among leading domestic FPC manufacturers.
Due to the diverse characteristics of downstream customers covering communication and mobile network devices, automotive electronics, industrial control, home appliances, smart terminals, and medical fields, and the high qualification requirements and lengthy certification cycles of downstream customers such as automotive and server manufacturers, leading manufacturers are more likely to establish cooperative relationships with domestic and international leading brand customers due to their strong R&D capabilities, large-scale supply and timely delivery capabilities, as well as high-quality stable product quality and comprehensive enterprise management levels. This strong customer loyalty solidifies their market competitive position. For example, leading domestic manufacturer Hongxin Electronics has maintained stable strategic partnerships with top companies such as Tianma Group, BOE Technology Group, and Innolux Corporation in the global small and medium-sized display module field for over ten years, and has continuously expanded its customer base to include Huaxing Optoelectronics, Visionox, Xindi Optoelectronics, and Dijing Optoelectronics. In mobile phone manufacturing, its products are indirectly or directly used in smartphones from Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo through display modules, touch modules, and fingerprint recognition modules, continuously expanding and enhancing its customer base and loyalty, creating strong conditions for market competition and driving industry share to concentrate towards leading manufacturers.