'The strong in FPCB inspection equipment' BiOptro secures a number of Chinese customers

A Konex-listed company focusing on Flexible Printed Circuit Board (FPCB) Bare Board Test (BBT) equipment, BiOptro, has diversified its sales by acquiring a number of Chinese customers. They plan to improve their sales structure, which has been dependent on FPCB suppliers for Apple's iPhone, and to expand their business area into automation equipment field.

On the 17th, BiOptro announced that it has recently succeeded in attracting Chinese Printed Circuit Board (PCB) companies such as Nanya of Taiwan, Unimicron, Unitech, TTM and CCTC of China as its BBT customers. The BBT is a device that inspects the electrical characteristics of the board, such as circuit cutting and short circuit of the printed circuit board (PCB). BBT inspection is required at the PCB factory.

Existing customers of BiOptro are Samsung Electro-Mechanics, LG Innotek, Daeduck Electronics, Simmtech, Youngpoong Electronics, and BHI. Many of them bought BBT in large quantities from BiOptro to handle the RFPCB volume for the Apple's Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) iPhone. In the 2017 fiscal year (April 2017 ~ March 2018), the revenue of BiOptro has nearly tripled year-on-year, reaching KRW 14.3bn.

However, in the 2018 fiscal year (April 2018 ~ March 2019), the sales volume of iPhones will not increase dramatically and BiOptro's sales will inevitably decrease.

BiOptro seeks to diversify sales by securing new customers in China. In the country, demand for light-emitting diode (LED) PCBs and automotive electric PCBs is on the rise, which is advantageous for the company. Related BBT sales should expand. The demand will continue in the coming year, a company official explained. The goal is to diversify the automation business. The company's main products, automatic screw fastening systems, are supplied to Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, and BOE in China, which produce liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs. Auto screw for car audio is supplied to domestic and overseas car makers.

Founded in 2000, BiOptro is headquartered in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do. In 2016, it was listed on Konex. The main products are BBT for PCB and automation equipment. With 40 employees, BiOptro is ranked first in the BBT market for domestic FPCBs based on the cumulative amount of suppliers. It is the only Korean company to have all of the BBT equipment lineups applicable to three major PCBs, including HDI, FPCB, and package. The proportion of sales is 81% for BBT, 8% for automation equipment and 11% for after-sales services. Its main competitors are Japan's Read, Hioki, and Yamaha.