Electronic material and composite resin maker Eternal Materials recorded a pre-tax profit of NT$2.412 billion (US$86.1 million) for the first half of 2021, soaring 129.09% on year, according to the company.
This was mainly due to large increases in shipments for electronic materials used in PCB manufacturing, composite resin, and high-performance materials as well as price hikes for some product lines, Eternal said.
For dry-film photoresists used in PCB production, Eternal focuses on the Taiwan and China markets for a global market share of 33-34%, with Japan-based Asahi Chemicals and Showa Denko Materials, as well as DuPont, being the major competitors. Shipments for the product line highly hinge on clients' utilization of PCB production capacities, Eternal noted.
Eternal in 2013 acquired Japan-based film laminator maker Nikko-Materials which has the highest global market share for laminators used in ABF/BT, flip-chip BGA IC packaging technology. Eternal has fully utilized its production capacity for vacuum laminators for years and has obtained orders with shipments scheduled until late 2022.
For business outlook in the third quarter of 2021, demand for PCB-use electronic materials and high-performance materials is expected to remain strong while that for composite resin, mainly in the China market, is conservative, Eternal indicated.
Eternal's high-performance materials consist of UV (ultraviolet) monomers, UV oligomers, special coating materials, silicon powder, silicon additive, and 3D printing materials, with these product lines together taking a small proportion of consolidated revenues but having large growth potential in demand.
