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You wouldn't know from the recent activities of Italy-based
CST Group that there's a serious slump in the European PCB
industry. In the past month, CST has announced the acquisition
of all assets of the former Alcatel facility in Frosinone
(near Rome) as well as the establishment of a new plant (pictured)
in Tuscany. The new factory is designed for high-tech multilayer
production, with 18,000 square meters of covered area and
capacity of 350,000 square meters per year.
CST Group, which produces double-sided multilayer boards
up to 32 layers, controlled impedance boards, and very high
frequency circuits, has a lofty goal in mind - to become the
largest Italian PCB group.
PCB007 recently interviewed CST Group Sales & Marketing
Manager Raffaele Di Crosta about the group's activities
(PCB007) Since the time the CST Group was established,
what has been the most dramatic industry change the company
has witnessed?
(Raffaele Di Crosta) CST has been founded over 40 years ago
in Trezzo sull’Adda (MI), and from then it has always
grown up, gaining a unique experience in the world of professional
PCBs. The most radical change from the technological point
of view has been surely the advent of the SMD technology which,
many years ago, brought to a real revolution within PCB production
technology in order to face the new challenge towards component
miniaturization.
More recently, the introduction of more complex and even
smaller components (e.g., micro-BGA), often linked to PCBs
with blind and buried via-holes, created further necessities
for big investments in the field of drilling technology (laser-via)
and of chemical and galvanic (reverse pulsating current) metallization.
At present, the current developments are following two directions:
the capability of silk-screen printing and embedding in the
inner layers a large number of passive components on one side,
and with the use of high-recycling materials and products.
From the market point of view, the last two years have been
the most difficult because of the deep and unforeseeable crisis
of telecommunications together with the big pressure on the
sale prices, often unjustified considering the investments
involved.
While many companies in other European countries close
some factories or shut down completely, Italy is emerging
as a PCB leader in Europe. To what do you attribute this success?
This result is to be attributed to the peculiarity of the
Italian industry, made up of small- and medium-size companies,
even in the PCB field, and to the flexibility and ability
of some enterprises (much more flexible if compared with our
foreign competitors), which are able at the same time to put
themselves continuously in discussion in order to minimize
the structure and production costs, improving procedure capabilities
and reducing the time to market.
CST Group is building a new multilayer production plant
in Venturina (Livorno Province) on the Tirrenic Coast near
the island of Elba, named CST NET S.p.A. The new plant will
raise CST Group's annual capacity to a projected 465,000 square
meters per year. What in the current market conditions justifies
this expansion?
The investment concerning the new plant has been planned with
the awareness that its profit will have to be judged in the
medium term; also because in order to reach the above written
volume, we have considered two to three years' time.
It also became absolutely necessary to maintain CST on the
market because of the new production technology requirements
and of the enormous pressure arising from some historical
customers needing strategic suppliers in terms of volumes
and purchasing power.
Finally, it’s very important to operate in different
plants to be able to to guarantee the “Supply Continuity”
in case of serious production interruptions (DRP-Disaster
Recovery Plan).
When is the new factory expected to come online?
CST NET is already operating to 90% of the production cycle,
and it’s in training on the remaining phases (mechanics
and electrical test). Recently we have introduced the Atotech
line for the lead-free finishing called “Immersion Tin.”
After the summer we will ultimate the last phases, which are
now finished in the northern facility.
Will CST Group expand its salesforce in Italy and throughout
Europe as a result of the new factory? Does the company plan
to create a salesforce in the USA?
Yes, of course. We’re already strengthening our sales
staff, looking for resources of notable experience, both as
direct employees and agents on the market, with particular
care for the UK, France, and USA.
The CST Bristol site in northern Italy specializes in
double-sided boards. How does the company propose to keep
this work from going to China or other lower-cost regions?
CST Bristol has got a very lean and flexible structure together
with significant capabilities, having produced up to now multilayer
boards, from prototypes to large production. Clearly the incidence
of depreciation is here very low, and this makes CST Bristol
particularly competitive by manufacturing double-sided PCBs
from small to high volumes, with short lead-times. Certain
logistic advantages, together with the ability of producing
double-face PCBs (even with tight structures) with some of
the most competitive prices in Europe and the variety of possible
finishes, contribute to keep business shares in Europe, even
though the present weakness of the US Dollar does not help
at all.
Have you seen a return of some customers to CST Group
due to SARS concerns, quality issues, or logistics problems
abroad?
Not declared, even if we do not think that we should make
too many hopes on that. It is with no doubt a dramatic phenomenon
for all of us and which we hope will be solved definitively
very soon. However, it remains clear that the big PCB users
have always to find an alternative against these “large
concentrations of offer,” which could be very dangerous
for various issues, as happened in Taiwan some years ago when
a disastrous earthquake hit the place. As a consequence, some
of the biggest OEMs are reconsidering the business share between
Europe and Asia.
Where does the CST Group expect to be ranked among Italian
and other European PCB makers in the next three years?
We think to be at the beginning of a new positive market phase,
at least for the next two to three years, even if the growth
rate seems to be quite contained. This, together with another
important operation we have just completed (the acquisition
of the former Alcatel PCB factory in Frosinone), is aiming
to gain a leadership position in Italy and, with the support
and acknowledgment of our customers, to become one the most
important references in Europe.
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