KCE Electronics targets 2018 12-15% sales rise

BANGKOK — Thailand’s KCE Electronics Pcl, Southeast Asia’s biggest maker of printed circuit boards (PCBs), expects to increase sales in dollar terms by 12-15% to over $480 million this year, its chief executive officer said on Friday.

Sales rose 6.7% to $420 million last year on strong demand for PCBs, particularly from the automobile industry, CEO Pitharn Ongkosit told Reuters in an interview.

“This year’s sales in dollar terms, we will grow about 12-15%, which will come from old and new customers,” he said. “The automotive PCB market is growing steadily, by 5-6% a year.”

PCBs are key components in electronic products in the automobile, electrical appliance and telecommunications industries.

KCE exports about 50% to Europe, 20% to China and over 10% to the United States. Global carmakers are its main customers, along with companies such as Siemens and Sony Corp.

The firm expects its gross margin to rise to 31.5-32% from last year’s 30% on cost management and a slower rise in prices of copper, a key PCB component, Pitharn said.

Copper prices are expected to rise to $8,000 a ton this year from $7,100$7,200 currently after jumping nearly $2,000 a ton last year, he said.

Despite the baht’s strength, KCE will not hedge more as its imported materials are already in dollar terms and it has a dollar-denominated loan of $70 million, Pitharn said.

KCE, which has total production capacity of 3.15 million square feet per month, plans to invest about 700 million baht ($22.3 million) this year and about the same amount in 2019 to add a combined capacity of 900,000 square feet a month, Pitharn said.

The company also expects to finalize in 2019 a plan to build a new factory with a production capacity of 2.4 million square feet a month to boost sales, he said. —