On March 5, Kuraray announced that it will cease production of Vecstar™ FCCL flexible copper clad laminate by the end of June 2026. It will continue to produce and sell Vecstar™ liquid crystal polymer film at the Saijo plant and strive to expand its range of applications.

Vecstar™ is the world's first liquid crystal polymer (LCP) film, based on Kuraray's unique film-forming technology. Previously, Kuraray announced that it had completed the capacity expansion of this LCP film at the Saijo plant in 2018, and by the end of 2020, the total production capacity of the two plants reached 1.8 million square meters.

Regarding this production halt, Kuraray stated: "Since the start of Vecstarm FCCL production in 2019, we have been striving to expand our business. However, the growth of the 5G-related millimeter wave market we targeted has been lower than expected, making it difficult to ensure the profit levels required for maintaining stable production."

It is understood that Flexible Copper Clad Laminate (FCCL) is a commonly used substrate material for Flexible Printed Circuit boards (FPC), typically consisting of a flexible insulating base film and metal foil. Compared with traditional rigid copper clad laminates in terms of product characteristics, FCCL has advantages such as being lighter, thinner, and more flexible and bendable. FPC made using FCCL as the substrate material has been widely used in electronic products such as mobile phones, digital cameras, automotive satellite navigation devices, LCD TVs, and laptops.

Vecstar™ FCCL is a proprietary composite laminate product series from Kuraray, utilizing a proprietary Vecstar™ (Kuraray's proprietary liquid crystal polymer film) coated copper foil solution. Compared to other FCCL solutions, Vecstar™ FCCL has high-frequency characteristics that are more suitable for high-speed transmission circuits and high-frequency electronic devices, and it is used in LCP (Liquid Crystal Polymer) film antennas and 5G solutions.

In order to avoid impacting the current product needs of direct customers, Kuraray plans to postpone the final discontinuation of Vecstar™ FCCL products until the end of June 2026. Until then, Kuraray will continue to supply Vecstar™ FCCL products and provide related after-sales services to relevant customers and partners.