Overview:
The year of 2008 saw the exchange of roles between plastic and metal. The plastic players enjoyed a lower cost of raw materials than MgAl players due to their cost cut in advance considering the decline of plastic case market in 2007. In contrast, metal case producers still enjoined their dream of the growth from previous years but actually recorded a decline in 2008.
Laptop Case Market
The output value of MgAl alloy dropped somewhat in recent two years, which is mainly attributable to the following.
(1) MgAl alloy mainly applied in commercial laptops and medium- and high-end laptops, the sales performance of those is not considerable.
(2) The price gap to plastic case
Besides, positives are composed of that the prices of Mgnesium and Aluminum sharply dropped; the more popular products like Netbook needs the addition of MgAl alloy slices as the support to A-side plastic in order to satisfying intensity; the heat dissipation of MgAl alloy meets the demand of UCLV super-low voltage platform; Occidental vendors still prefer MgAl alloy case for their high-end products.
Mobile Phone Case Market
In 2008, mobile phone metal case and structure market shrank to a great extent. On the one hand, the sales of Motorola dropped drastically from 160 million handsets to 100 million handsets; on the other hand, 3G iphone of Apple transferred to plastic case from metal case considering the realize of GPS function. Nevertheless, the shipment of mobile phones with metal case of Samsung, Nokia, LG and SonyEricsson were all increased.
In 2009, mobile phone market tends to drop as a whole; the high-end handset will see a greater drop; and the cost competition will be more intense. Furthermore, Motorola, the main client of metal case, will not shrug off the predicament.
Till 2010, after the inconsistency of GPS with metal case gets resolved, such vendors like Apple will transfer back to metal case, and Motorola will resume as well. It is expected that RIM will also join the metal case by then. In this sense, the metal case market after 2010 will be expanding.
After its being acquired by Liteon, the profit of Perlos increased in spite of a sales drop. The operating profit margin of Perlos in 2007Q1 (before the acquisition) was negatively 2.3%, while the figure was up to 6.7% in 2008Q3. After being purchased by Jabil, Green Point endeavored to develop new clients, and sharply increased its shipment to Nokia, which has made up the decline of Motorola. Moreover, the South Korean players like the Intops, P&TEL, SHINYANG, CHAARMTECH, YUSUNG, JINWON, JYSLOUTEC, MOTIS and KH-VATEC were all achieved a considerable performance in 2008 driven by Samsung and LG. In contrast, counterparts from Mainland China were all in price war and achieved little profit. However, a bad profit for Chinese players due to the price war.
Digital Camera Case Market
Canon and Sony persist in their own production. There are only few of independent Digital cameral case and structure manufacturers. Along with the appreciation of Japanese Yen and increasing cost pressure, the outsourcing proportion will be expanding in 2009. Considering the digital camera OEM, there are four giants are Foxconn (Premier), Altek, Canon and Asia-Optical. Foxconn is capable of self-producing case and structure. Canon and Asia-Optical made invested the YORKEY, which focus on the production of plastic case and structure. Asus and Canon invested the AVY Precision Technology, which focus on the production of metal case and structure. Nowadays, AVY has ranked the first in the world with a share over 50%.
TV Case Market
Most of TV manufacturers are capable of self-producing TV cases. However, considering the LCD TV emphasizes its appearance, for some state-of-the-art technologies, the independent case suppliers are more specialized in, for example the Echom Science & Technology Co., Ltd and Taoshi Mould Group in China.
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