Let ´ s face truths: Who would certainly ever think of listening to a viewpoint about the PCB sector coming from someone in Brazil?
In 2011, when I first came to the U.S. for a proper training session at an electrical test company, I heard things like: “Brazil is bigger than Texas? WOW!” and “Brazil is almost the same size as the U.S.?” and even this: “Are there cockroaches the size of my hand in Brazil?” People were also very curious about the specific location of places like Rio de Janeiro and the Amazon rainforest.
It wasn’t any much better when I went to a PCB manufacturing show in Suzhou, China, two years ago. The Chinese people I talked with said they had never heard of Brazil.
Brazilian Economy: Instruction
Brazil is the fifth biggest country and the fifth most-populated nation in the world, with roughly 205 million inhabitants. The country ranks among the top 10 wealthiest countries in the world, but its future is not so clear. Brazil is heading toward one of its hardest recessions in the recent history, mainly due to political instability.
Abinee, the Brazilian Electrical and Electronics Industry Association, estimate a drop of 10% in real income (RS) in 2015 compared to 2014, and 6% in 2016, compared to last year. This industry is responsible for approximately 2.5% of the national GDP and it is divided into eight major segments as shown in Table 2.
The bad news is that there are tremendous obstacles Brazil must conquer to stay alive in this arena. The good news is we are ready for battle. What ´ s the point of following this column?
Although Brazilian PCB manufacturers’ revenue represents a small share of the country ´ s GDP, and consequently has no big influence worldwide, we deal with some of the biggest players in the international electronics sector.
Quick-turn PCB manufacturing, small- and medium-size batches, high-tech PCBs, severe environmental laws, lack of a skilled work force and tons of customer demands, are just some of the issues we need to handle with in our everyday lives.
My targets for this new post– Made in Brazil– are to present Brazil in a different way from the one I was presented to when I was abroad, and to share the know-how I have acquired in the PCB manufacturing market throughout the last, almost 10 years I have been element of the Circuibras team, working and leading people in different zones– electrical test, drilling, routing, lamination, process engineering, dry film, AOI and visual inspection.