Japan Solder Makers Accelerate Production Shift to Overseas

Japanese solder makers are shifting production overseas, mainly to China. Tin supply from Indonesia, the largest tin exporter to Japan, is recently tightening. The supply is concerned to tighten more in 2011. Meanwhile, in China where many Japanese solder makers have production sites, supply and demand balance of tin is loosing. The market condition is better for Japanese solder makers.

Assembly product makers have shifted manufacturing bases to overseas. Along the movement, solder is mainly consumed at overseas to bond electronic parts on printed circuit boards. Several years ago, when lead-free solder became adopted widely, lead-free solder was mostly produced in Japan and exported. In recent years, the production has shifted to overseas.

This movement may be accelerated by current tin supply and demand balance. In Japan, tin supply temporarily tightened for April-July 2010 due to export slowdown from Indonesia. The export restarted and the material shortage was relieved.

But the main production site of tin in Bangka Island was in bad weather despite of the dry season to produce tin ore and recently entered the rainy season again. As a result, the ore output turned low. Japanese tin import decreased by 46% to 2,009 tonnes in October from the previous month, according to Ministry of Finance. The import is concerned to shorten more in 2011.

On the other hand, tin supply and demand balance seems to be loosing in China, the world largest tin producer. China became the net importing country of tin and stopped tin export in 2007. However, China’s domestic tin demand growth recently slowed down. There were export offer from China to Japan this summer, according to Japanese source.