Printed circuit board firm Korea Circuit is considering entering the battery market, TheElec has learned.
Since early 2021, the company had held talks with multiple startups in the battery sector to potentially invest in them.
It had held talks with a battery separator company and a battery anode company, people familiar with the matter said.
Korea Circuit’s discussions with the startup working on metal-based anode were in the final stages, they said.
The startup is also working with LG Energy Solution, which is evaluating its anode, they added.
Korea Circuit also held talks with separator firm Enerever Battery Solution and anode firm P&B Materials, but these talks ended before reaching the deal-making phase.
The PCB firm is seeing profitability in its main smartphone high density interconnect board business drop in recent years.
Other companies that use to manufacture HDI such as Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Daeduck Electronics and Isu Petasys all exited the business since 2019.
Korea Circuit stood to benefit from Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ exit from the sector. But profit increase was lower than expected due to Samsung’s lackluster growth in smartphones.
The PCB maker is seeing demand for semiconductor boards rise due to the recent chip shortage, but this won’t be enough to offset the decline in its HDI business.
Last month, Korea Circuit decided to spend 200 billion won on its semiconductor board business. Earlier in September, it had signed a long-term agreement worth 162 billion won to supply flip-chip ball grid array (FC-BGA) with a global customer, which is thought to be Broadcom.
Korea Circuit is planning to manufacture mid- to low-end FC-BGA. It is hoping that its revenue from semiconductor boards will exceed that of smartphones HDI boards by 2024.
