GEORGE TOWN: PIE Industrial Bhd. hopes to finalise contract talks with several big multinational clients by the third quarter of this year for the supply of box-build electronics.

Group managing director Alvin Mui told StarBiz that one of the box-build was for the industrial and commercial printing markets.

“This area is seeing growth because there now new equipment capable of handling multiple applications with innovative ink, coatings and functional fluids,” he said.

The global industrial printing market is projected to grow to US$114.8bil by 2022, according to a Smithers Pira report.

“Asia, North America, and Western Europe are the growth areas, as there are large printing companies supplying electronics and environment materials, films and interior décor materials,” he said.

The commercial printing market is projected to grow to US$317bil in 2022, led by the packaging business, according to a recent Technavio report.

Asia Pacific currently dominates the global commercial printing market with 42% share in 2017.

“As we are in Penang, we are in a very good position to tap into the Asia Pacific market. For us, we look forward to supporting also the advertising and industrial industries with the new box-build electronic equipment,” he said.

Mui said once the deal is secured this year, the contribution to the group should come in 2019.

On top of new box-build projects, Mui said the group was expecting its printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) business to contribute about 50% to this year’s revenue.

The PCBA are used in sensor devices and bar-code scanners.

“The sub-assembly work for the PCBA division has grown recently. About four years ago, the contribution to the group’s revenue was between 25% to 30%.

“We manufacture the cables and plastic and metal parts for the sub-assembly work.

“Last year, the contribution improved to about 40%. In 2018, the contribution is projected to be about 50%,” he said.

Moving on, based on customers’ feedback and projections, this year should be another double-digit percentage growth year for the group.

“For the first quarter 2018, we expect to ship out over RM130mil worth of PCBA and box-built products.

“Like the first quarter of 2017, this first quarter is not weak.

“Previous first quarters as in 2016 and 2015 were not very strong quarters, as we shipped out less than RM120mil worth of products,” Mui added.

The group currently operates in four plants in Seberang Jaya, where the utilisation of the production area is almost 80%.

The PIEIB Group started off with the manufacturing and assembly of cable and wire and has since 1996 added on fabrication of moulds and dies, PCB assembly using precision SMT, plastic injection moulding and Class 10K and l00K clean room product assembly and testing of electronic products. Coupled with its new up-to-date manufacturing facilities, PIEIB Group is now capable of offering a complete integrated ‘one-stop’ CEM service to major multinational companies for various electronics, telecommunications and computer peripheral products. (Source: PIE Industrial Berhad website)

Source: The Star

Photo source: The Star