Challenges with Panasonic sourcing

These days Megtron6, seems to be a very popular choice for many applications with demands for low loss, signal integrity, HDI, high layer count and multiple pressing cycles. Megtron6 seems to be an excellent choice as it delivers both great low loss values (.002-.004), great electrical and physical stability and offers great CAF resistance. After Typhoon Hagibis. struck the coast of Japan, Panasonic factory in in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, lead a devastating blow. The damage to the factory was so severe, that manufacturing 2 month ago was stopped. The sourcing of Panasonic materials has been an absolute nightmare ever since and here 2 month later, the sourcing lead time of Panasonic material seems to continue into the new year. Two months ago, Panasonic expected a full recovery to be in place by beginning of December 2019, but according to news on the www it seems like the suspended operations of the factory, has been prolonged. Many OEMs have been stressed to find alternative sourcing for their demands. PCB broker Azitech has helped several OEM’s to equivalent materials from Elite Materials, Doosan, ITEQ and Hitachi. These materials are perhaps not so well branded as Panasonic, but according to Azitech OEMs they have been equally satisfied. As many OEMs have a special desire for Panasonic, we hope to have Panasonic back a full capacity by end of February.