Furukawa Electric to Expand Copper Foil for PCB at Taiwan

Furukawa Electric announced on Thursday the firm expands output capacity of electrolytic copper foil for printed circuit board to 1.5 times at monthly 1,200 tonnes at Taiwan plant by January 2013. The firm builds new plant next to existing plant for 5.9 billion yen to increase the output mainly for high functional products including foil for halogen free board.

The subsidiary, Furukawa Circuit Foil Taiwan, of which Furukawa Electric controls 67% with share by Sojitz Corporation and local company, expands the capacity. The 4th phase of expansion is to expand plant land space from current 31,000 square meters to around 40,000 square meters.

The plant makes monthly 800 tonnes of commodity grade foil for printed circuit board. The firm launches new plant in July 2012 to ramp up the production to 1,200 tonnes level. The plant eyes additional expansion depending on the demand.

Around 90% of copper clad laminate is made in Asia including China and Taiwan. Furukawa Electric expects the demand will increase by annual 10% through 2015. The firm increases the output for halogen free and lead free products when the firm expects the demand increases especially for the high valued products. The firm doubles the products for copper clad laminate products to monthly 600 tonnes, which represents 50% of the production.

The firm also expends 6.9 billion yen to build electrolytic copper foil plant for lithium ion battery launching monthly 500 tonnes of operation in July 2013. The firm also expands the output capacity from 550 tonnes to 1,000 tonnes at Imaichi plant in Tochigi. The firm expands the total electrolytic copper foil production from current 1,850 tonnes to 3,200 tonnes in 2013.