Panasonic Announces Price Revisions for Copper Clad Laminates, Prepregs, and Mass Laminations

Osaka, Japan - Panasonic Corporation today announced additional revisions to the prices of its printed circuit board materials, effective with shipments starting June 1, 2017. The price increase will affect its copper clad laminates, prepregs, and "PreMulti" mass laminations with inner layer circuits.

The move follows the adjustments Panasonic made in January 2017 that raised the prices of its copper clad laminates by 10% and mass laminations by 5% against the background of increased copper foil prices. However, the continued global tight copper foil supply and demand situation has driven up the prices beyond the previously expected levels. In addition, the strong worldwide demand for printed circuit boards is causing a short supply and soaring prices of other raw materials such as glass cloth and resin.

In an attempt to absorb the increasing cost of raw materials, Panasonic has made its best efforts to cut the cost of manufacturing processes and other expenses. However, the further increased cost of raw materials cannot be absorbed by the self-help efforts and the last price revision alone. The tight balance of supply and demand is expected to persist for the time being. To ensure a reliable supply of products under the circumstances, the company has once again made the difficult decision to ask customers to help cover a portion of these increased raw material costs as shown below.

• Products subject to the price revision and the scale of the revision with respect to the current price

The new pricing will be effective with shipments starting on June 1, 2017