BH Chairman Lee Kyung-hwan stands in front of the plating equipment, which is one of the manufacturing processes of flexible circuit board (FPCB).
A flexible circuit board (FPCB) is a thin and flexible board to which integrated circuits and resistors are electrically connected. The market is growing rapidly as electronic products become thinner, lighter, and smaller. In 2024, it is expected to reach 20 trillion won, a 25% increase from this year.
BH, headquartered in Incheon, is the number one company in Korea in this field. Last year, it recorded 7213 billion won in sales and 34 billion won in operating profit. This is the achievement of 21 years since Chairman Kyung-Hwan Lee founded the company in 1999. Chairman Lee said, “Following smartphones, electric vehicles and 5G (5G) mobile communications will become a full-fledged growth engine this year.”
Full-scale targeting the electric vehicle and electric equipment market
Hyundai Motor Company’s first exclusive electric car’Ioniq 5′, which has set a record of advance contracts, does not have a side mirror. Instead, a thin camera is installed. The driver can check the traffic conditions in the rear without blind spots through the OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display installed indoors. This display was developed by BH for over a year, and is applied to Ionic 5 for the first time. Audi, a German automobile brand, is supplying displays to display various types of information in the rear seats. It is an analysis that the company’s FPCB technology for OLED displays, which has been recognized through smartphones, is naturally expanding to the automotive electronic device (electronic device) market.
Chairman Lee said, “With the spread of OLED displays, both electric and internal combustion vehicles, the number of finished car brands that apply BH products is naturally increasing.”
The cable that connects the battery cells for electric vehicles is also the company’s new food. In existing electric vehicles, a bundle of wires called a’wiring harness’ played a role in tying the battery cells together. It is evaluated that BH has contributed to lightening electric vehicles by developing an alternative cable manufactured by FPCB for the first time in Korea. This battery cell connection cable has begun to be adopted by Audi and Volvo. The company explained that the quantity as well as the number of customers will increase with the second half of the year.
Chairman Lee expected, “As the electric vehicle market has just begun to grow, new food items such as OLED displays and battery cell cables will also grow rapidly.”
Leading smartphone 5G technology
BH Chairman Lee Kyung-hwan stands in front of the plating equipment, which is one of the manufacturing processes of flexible circuit board (FPCB).
BH’s FPCB was early adopted in Samsung Electronics’ smartphones and was recognized for its technological prowess. In 2017, it began supplying to US smartphone makers competing with Samsung, taking over the top spot in the smartphone FPCB market.
Currently, it is also showing prominence in the 5G field, which is the mainstream of smartphones. The company’s parts, which have been localized with polyimide, using a 5G antenna material monopolized by Japan’s Murata, the world’s largest ceramic capacitor manufacturer, are being applied to Samsung smartphones. For this antenna component, BH produces FPCBs and subsidiary DKT makes modules. It is predicted that the number of 5G smartphones sold from about 300 million units last year will double this year. In the second half of the year, it plans to mass-produce 5G repeater parts that connect smartphones and base stations.
This year’s FPCB supply to US smartphone makers is also expected to increase significantly from the previous year. This is because BH’s share increases as all the smartphone displays of the company are changed to OLED. This is why Chairman Lee answered “very good” to a question about the industry this year.
BH is expected to achieve sales of about 900 billion won this year and an operating margin of about 7%, according to the stock market. Chairman Lee predicted, “In the future, 5G communications, batteries, and automotive electronics will feed the company.”
Incheon = Reporter Kim Byeong-geun [email protected]