Chin Poon, the second largest manufacturer of automotive PCBs in the world, has recovered its operations momentum up until the month of August. For the time being, its current order visibility has reached about a month’s capacity. Considering that the COVID-19 epidemic is still spreading wildly in many regions, Chin Poon prefers to hold a rather cautious view towards the prospects of automotive electronics in the fourth quarter.
　　Chin Poon mentioned that orders are currently recovering, and that operations should continue to regain their momentum from July to August. As such, order visibility should range between six weeks to one month, which is mainly dependent on the speed at which goods are shipped to customers. At present, it seems that the operation momentum for August is viewed rather favorably.
　　Regarding individual plants, Chin Poon’s Changshu plant (in China) made a profit of 58 million in the first quarter, and 65 million in the second quarter. On the other hand, the losses of its Draco plant (in Thailand) were reduced to 35 million in the second quarter.
　　The plant in Taiwan ended up posting a loss, due to a failure in the attempt to increase the utilization rate of its production capacity in the second quarter.
　　Chin Poon indicated that if the utilization rate of its plant in Taiwan can be increased to 70% capacity, it will help business operations in the third quarter restored stability; and during that time the company will continue to actively explore other industrial applications.
　　Regarding the automotive market, Chin Poon discovered that the comparison of sales in the first quarter of 2021 against those of 2019, should be taken as the key indicator to view the market recovery. Right now, automakers are aggressively investing into the development of battery energy systems for electric vehicles, and it is estimated that the development will start to speed up when the applications for such systems are expanded.    
　　As a matter of fact, Chin Poon had previously forecasted that operations in the third quarter would recover from the bottom of the second quarter. This will be mainly based on the recovery of the major European and American manufacturers of automotive electronics, especially if the spread of the epidemic can controlled. (News source: Economic Daily News)