Jan 18 2011
Electronic chemicals are used in producing electronic components such as Printed Circuit Boards (PCB), Integrated Circuits (IC), flat screens, and semiconductor chips. As a result, the market closely follows the growth pattern in the electronics and allied industries like the semiconductor industry.
The longest economic turmoil that lasted through years 2007 through 2009, not surprisingly impacted the market for electronic chemicals with the hurting electronics end-use sector resulting in the global market shedding over US$2.0 billion in revenues over the years 2007 through 2009. Sales of consumer electronic equipment, such as, blu-ray players, mobile phones, game consoles, DVDs, PCs, optical disk drives, scanners, printers, storage devices, and PC connectivity products, among others witnessed significant softening in demand. Key reasons attributed to the weak demand include all of the symptomatic manifestations of the recession, such as, high rates of employment, falling consumer incomes, confidence, reduction in household wealth, lower discretionary incomes and weaker spending power.
Indicative of the chaos wreaked on the electronic chemicals market by the under-utilization of manufacturing facilities in the electronics industry is the flat-panel-display segment, where lower demand for mobile phones and LCD, PDPs and computer screens severely crippled order influx rates for flat panel display chemicals. Similarly, crumbling business confidence index, tight liquidity, financial constraints, capital shortages, high borrowing rates, also discouraged new investments in electronics in the industrial (process & manufacturing), enterprise, corporate, and communication markets. The slump in new car sales in the automotive industry also displaced business opportunities at large in the automotive electronics market. The soft business environment in most end-use sectors dislodged growth in the market, including chemicals used in semiconductor processing, optical applications, panel display applications, advanced packaging, and solar cell manufacturing.
The semiconductor industry especially suffered the worst, given the fact that, over the decades, the industry has become an indispensable part of modern electronics with almost every man-made electronic device now being integrated with an embedded microchip or integrated circuit (IC). Reduced investments in chip fabrication technologies, equipment and factories as manufacturers turned defensive against uncertain economic prospects impacted demand for electronic chemicals, such as chemical planarization slurries, lithography materials, metallization chemistries, pure chemicals, electronic gases and integrated circuit chemicals used in semiconductor devices, and device processing. Demand of specialty and electronic gases correlate closely with silicon wafer consumption that had a wild ride in 2009. In addition to depressed demand conditions in microelectronics and semiconductor material end-use sectors, the market for electronic gases was also impacted by the soft business climate in other application sectors such as, solar energy cells, and display panels. Beaten & bruised by recession, global demand for Electronic Gases is expected to increase at a moderate pace during 2007 through 2015 period.
With the recession now having played out its part in full proportions and with all segments of the electronic equipment market having hit rock bottom, the worst is now over and a rebound is now seen as inevitable. Recovery will be led largely by the sheer pervasiveness of electronic products in the modern world. United States and Asia-Pacific account for a lion’s share of the global Electronic Chemicals market, as stated by the new market research report. Semiconductor fabrication plants are expected to resume investments in purchasing electronic materials required to ensure relevance and sustainability as the chip industry continues to move up to the next generation in IC manufacturing.
Revenues for Semiconducting Materials market in Asia-Pacific are expected to surge at a CAGR of 10.3% during the analysis period. Growth will be propelled by technological advancements such as wireless communications, man-machine interface, pervasive computing and video digitization that would create new markets while simultaneously regenerating older ones. Advancements would in turn be facilitated by the availability of SoC (systems-on-chip) technology, digital signal processors and more adaptable microprocessors.
Major players in the marketplace include Air Products and Chemicals, Air Liquide SA, BASF SE, Dow Chemical Company, Gentek, Kanto Chemical Co Inc, Linde AG, OM Group, Silecs, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Sumitomo Chemical, Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co. among others.
The research report titled “Electronic Chemicals: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, issues, drivers, company profiles, mergers, acquisitions and other strategic industry activities. The report provides market estimates and projections (in US$ Million) for major geographic markets including the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of World. The study also analyzes the Electronic Chemicals market by segments, such as, Packaging & Substrates; Photoresists & Adjuncts; Electronic Gases, Semiconducting Materials; and other electronic chemicals.