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PCB-Making in France in 2002 - A Year to Forget?
January 2, 2004 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
PCB-Making in France in 2002 - A Year to Forget?
Another year of decrease for the whole PCB sector. International competition was felt even for medium runs, and French makers fought for their lives.
(This article was originally published in French in Pistes & Pastilles magazine. It is reproduced here, in translation, with permission.)
What an omen! For the first time in the life of Pistes & Pastilles, Protecno didn't answer our yearly survey of French PCB makers. Neither for its 2002 results, nor for its 2003 estimates, did the Breton shop feel up to bearing comparison with its colleagues. Yet its boss, Lucien Traon, is chairman of the PCB section in Gixel, and one can be surprised that he doesn't set an example as his association recommends transparency.
But this silence is actually rather typical of the attitude of the sector: Out of the 75 French plants and shops that have been manufacturing PCBs in 2002, only 40 or so did answer to us and take rank in our honours list. We've been able to achieve our annual ranking for a number of other societies, but we stay in the thickest fog regarding a dozen PCB makers--probably because they themselves have no more of a clear vision on their future...
Why such a refusal to answer? Because of blindness? No, of course: Companies have had all their time to see the crisis arise and unfold in all its horror. After a turnover decrease of 15-17% in 2001, they suffered another fall of 16.6% in 2002. French production was restricted to about ?300 million in 2002 (3,000 employees), compared to an average of ?430 million since 1996. The sudden disappearance of Aspocomp, PPE, and Ruwel in 2001--equivalent to one-third of French production--hasn't been of any help for the others. Those who survived such a collapse and are still producing today must be good managers and excellent commercials, not to mention their technical know-how.
The decrepit or crooked plants have now disappeared. Unfortunately, the black hole that was dug in 2002 has weakened everybody, and especially slowed down the equipment renewal. And so are most PCB manufacturers a little bit more decrepit today than three years ago, even though practices have evolved, and even though France is pretending to be a country of high technology. The investment curve is as flat as possible, and the little improvement in 2003 won't make up the time.
A word of caution in the discrediting of the French PCB: If it's no longer regarded as a high-tech product, it has no alternative argument to attract or to hold back the customers! Caution with the amnesia, too: One can understand that the manufacturers prefer not to remember the two horrible years they lived--so much so that they even don't want to take part in our survey. To repress the memories of dark moments is an understandable attitude for the human being, although it's a stupid one for the industrial boss, because it arouses the suspicion of customers, bankers, and other partners. But what has to be avoided at any price is to forget everything as soon as the situation is improving.
Due to standardisation and automation, and with the help of worldwide express companies, PCB is now a global industry, in which any event can be felt everywhere very quickly. For example, if social riots in the Shanghai area were to be repressed by the Chinese dictature as brutally as in 1989, this could in a few days change the PCB deal in the whole world.
The further variations are going to be abrupt and continuous, and companies had better keep in mind what they've done during the last three years to come out of the present hole. Dominique Lemiëre René-Martin Simonnet
French PCB makers' performances in 2002
Name
2002 Turnover (€ thousands)
1. Cire Group
70,500
2. Alcatel Coutances
30,862
3 - Cofidur Group
28,787
4. Sagem
25,897
5. Cimulec
10,700
6. Leoniflex
10,600
7. Nicolitch Evry
7,600
8. Systronic
6,300
9. Maine CI
6,000
10. Avi & Peschard
5,734
11. Lithos
5,700
12. Rci
5,645
13. CIV
4,200
14. CSI
4,988
15. Atlantec
4,040
16. Sofra-Pcb
3,800
17. Cibel
3,600
17. Socimet
3,600
19. ERE
3,177
20. Synergie
2,909