On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation against Ukraine, and a military conflict broke out between Russia and Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine are countries with large mineral and energy reserves, with some European and American countries imposing all-round sanctions on Russia in terms of energy, economy and finance, and the duration of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. It is bound to have a lasting and extensive impact on the global energy market. What impact will the Russian-Ukrainian conflict bring to the PCB and PCBA industry?
First, raw material prices are rising. Russia has the world's largest mineral and energy resources, due to the European and American sanctions against Russia and Russia's counter-sanctions, many manufacturers had to find new suppliers. Supply chain uncertainty will make raw material prices will inevitably rise sharply.
Second, difficult transportation and rising freight costs. First of all, Russia is the largest oil exporter in the world, and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine makes the oil price rise again and again, thus raising the transportation cost and greatly reducing the profitability of enterprises. Secondly, with the implementation of various sanctions and counter-sanctions policies and the impact of the epidemic for a long time, the number of flights, sea vessels and railways have been reduced, and the time for warehousing has suddenly increased, leading to shipment difficulties for many PCB and PCBA companies.
Third, metals and other raw materials are in short supply. Russia and Ukraine are the world's largest producers and exporters of nickel, copper and iron, copper as the most basic material of PCB substrate, raw materials such as zinc, palladium, nickel and platinum are crucial to semiconductor manufacturing. Financial sanctions have hampered Russia's foreign trade, and military action has affected Ukraine's trade exchanges.
Fourth, chip shortage. Chip shortages have been a serious problem since 2021, the delivery date of PCBA has been seriously affected. It was expected to ease this year, but the sudden military conflict could exacerbate the shortage. Ukraine is the main raw material for chips, 70% of the helium used in chips comes from Ukraine. Problems in the supply chain will affect the supply chain source for chip manufacturers, directly leading to the absence of chip production capacity, thus exacerbating the global chip shortage.
