Weiner’s World—December 2017

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Chinese electric-car maker NIO has launched sales of its first vehicle, the ES8 sports utility vehicle. It has a range of 311 miles on a single charge, and is priced at $67,783. That compares with $127,800 (in China) for Tesla’s Model X, and $91,160 for BMW’s gasoline-powered X5. The seven-seater ES8 can accelerate to 62 mph in 4.4 seconds.

After raising more than $1 billion from investors led by Tencent Holdings Ltd., NIO is preparing for its next phase of growth in the world’s biggest electric-car market. It will also be competing against homegrown rivals such as BYD Co.^[4], as well as Volkswagen and General Motors. NIO, formerly known as NextEV, is among several startups to have sprouted in China after the introduction of incentives^[5] for new-energy carmakers. Last month, VW said it would invest more^[6] than $11.8 billion with its partner Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group^[7] to develop a range of new-energy vehicles, and Ford Motor^[8] will spend $760 million in an alliance with Anhui Zotye Automobile Company.

Multek was featured in a customer roadshow organized by Flex Automotive, held in Shanghai, China. Multek team members presented on its rigid and flexible printed circuit (FPC) solutions for the automotive industry, including rigid-flex PCBs, roll-to-roll FPC and assembly, plus its proprietary Q-Prime technology for LED applications.

Samsung Electronics’ $8 billion purchase of automotive and audio electronics company Harman signals its intent to continue to grow in the automotive electronics segment by acquisition. Young Sohn, the South Korean company’s Silicon Valley-based president and chief strategy officer, said he was keen for world’s top maker of memory chips, smartphones and televisions to expand in automotive markets, digital health and industrial automation. In case you missed it, Samsung, surpassed Intel this year to become the world’s biggest semiconductors manufacturer.

Schweizer Electronic signed an investment agreement with the government of Jintan/China (Jiangsu Province) to set up a sustainable high technology printed circuit board (PCB) and embedding production facility in China. The total investment will amount to $180 million over the next few years to enable group sales to grow to $500 million.

Schweizer is a leading manufacturer in the field of innovative high technology PCBs focusing on e-mobility, advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving. These trends have become the most powerful market drivers in the company’s most important business segment, namely automotive.

TTM Technologies Inc. has agreed to acquire Anaren for approximately $775 million in cash from affiliates of Veritas Capital. The transaction combines TTM’s strength in printed circuit board manufacturing with Anaren’s product portfolio of unique and proprietary RF components and subsystems for the aerospace, defense, and networking/communication markets.

EMS Note

The total electronics assembly value was valued at $1.4 trillion in 2016. It is forecasted to grow to about $1.7 trillion in 2021^[9]. The worldwide electronics manufacturing services (EMS) market segment now accounts for almost 40% of all assembly, even though the rate of growth for outsourcing by OEMs has slowed.

References

1. Weiner International Comments and Discussions page
2. NAND Flash Prices Start to Stabilize
3. IC Insights Report: IC Market Drivers
4. www.bloomberg.com
5. www.bloomberg.com
6. www.bloomberg.com
7. www.bloomberg.com
8. www.bloomberg.com
9. emsnow.com

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