柔性线路板（FPC），又叫软板。软板行业在2002年萌芽，2003和2004年高速发展，2005年进入杀价竞争阶段。2006和2007年 软板行业都十分低迷，2008年开始好转。即便是经济危机也没有阻止软板行业复苏的步伐，一方面，软板降价刺激了软板的需求，另一方面，对产品轻薄短小和 高可靠性的要求也造就了软板的应用空间。同时经历杀价竞争存活下来的软板厂家都曾经面对巨大的压力，成本控制和对抗压力都已经是驾轻就熟，对经济危机的到 来不感觉恐惧。

2007-2013年FPC市场下游分布
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手机是软板市场的主要增长动力，尤其是智能手机和xx手机。消费类电子领域成长力度也不错。消费类电子的笔记本电脑、PND、数码相机、DV、 液晶电视、等离子电视、媒体播放器等产品中，软板的使用频率会随着其性能和追求超薄体积而不断增加。笔记本电脑和平板电视大量采用LED背光，软板通常是 LED与主电路连接的最常见方式。即便是在2008和2009年也具备足够的成长性。未来笔记本电脑的屏幕和主板间的转轴连接也有可能使用软板。

硬盘的软板应用市场仍然能保有一席之地，虽然成长力度稍差。NAND取代硬盘的速度决不会太快，现在是资讯爆炸时代，存储的数量级增加很快，硬 盘能与之很好对应。而NAND不行，尽管NAND的降价速度也很快，但是比不上主流的存储密度的增加速度。除了上网本等非主流市场有潜力外，主流市场还是 硬盘。硬盘的存储密度xxx、可靠性和成熟度都在未来5年内占据优势。硬盘厂家现在只有6个，并且会减少，而软板厂家众多，软板厂家的议价空间不大，同时 硬盘所需要的软板式样单一。这些都决定了软板在硬盘市场的成长力度不强。

软板在光驱产业和硬盘产业类似，在光驱方面还好有蓝光的增长点。软板在打印机市场也比较稳定。

汽车的电子化也很明显，需要使用ECU的场合通常都会有软板，软板具备高可靠性和空间优势。而汽车ECU的使用量越来越多。

日本FPC厂家排名

2008年日元汇率按117：1，2009年按108：1计算

The FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) industry burgeoned in 2002, saw rapid expansion from 2003 to 2004, and then in 2005 entered the price-war competition. Afterwards, the FPC industry went through its downturn during 2006 to 2007, and turned better in 2008. The global financial crisis did not hinder the recovery of FPC industry. On the one hand, the drop in the price of FPC stimulates the demand for FPC; and on the other hand, the increasing demand for lightness, smallness and thinness as well as high reliability brings further application of FPC. Meanwhile, the FPC manufacturers that survived from price competition once suffered great pressure, and they are veteran in cost control and dealing with difficulties, thus fearless of global economic downturn.

FPC Market Downstream Distribution, 2007-2013?
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The cell phone is the main driver for FPC market growth, in particular smart phone and high-end cell phones. What’s more, FPC will be increasingly applied to such consumer electronics as laptop, PND, digital camera, DV, LCD TV, plasma TV, and media players with the pursuit of performance and ultra-thin size. A great number of Laptop and FPTV has been provided with LED as backlight, and FPC is as usual the main mode to connect LED with main circuit. In the near future, the shaft connecting laptop screen with motherboard is likely to use FPC.

The FPC has still certain market in hard disk, although with a higher growth to be desired. It is impossible for NAND to quickly replace hard disk in short term, since the storage capacity grows ever in information era, and hard disk rather than NAND can meet the demand. Despite the price of NAND drops sharply, it still can’t keep up with the growth rate of mainstream storage density. NAND has some potential in non-mainstream market such as Netbook; the hard disk has still dominated the mainstream market. In a word, hard disk will enjoy advantages in storage density, reliability, maturity and price-performance ratio in next five years. Currently, there are only six hard disk manufacturers, and the number will decrease. In contrast, there are many FPC manufactures, but with weak price bargaining ability. Moreover, the FPC required by hard disk is single in style. All those above decide not a robust growth of FPC in hard disk market.

In optical disc drive industry, the growth of FPC rests with blue ray. In Addition, FPC has steady performance in printer market.

In automobile, the usage of ECU is attended by FPC with high reliability and space advantage. Now, auto ECU gets increasingly applied.