Unitech’s revenue hit a record high in November last year with outstanding profits. However, due to clients’ inventory check at the end of December last year, the pull-in slowed down, and revenue dropped; the overall demand in the first quarter has been good, and the annual growth rate is estimated to increase despite fewer working days. Looking at 2018, in addition to continuous expansion in the Taiwan-based plant, the Shanghai Plant will be relocated to Nantong due to the government’s request. Currently, the construction of the Nantong Plant has started and is expected to be completed next year; the Nantong Plant is expected to start operation by 2020 at the earliest.

With regard to Unitech’s market structure, smart devices, automobiles, others (including POS and wearable devices), and NB/tablets account for 50%, 30%, 10%, and 10%, respectively; as for products, traditional boards, HDI, Any Layer, rigid-flex boards, and high-frequency boards account for 12%, 30%, 15%, 30%, and 13%, respectively.

In the second half of 2017, thanks to the battery module application of American clients, Unitech enjoyed a significant increase in rigid-flex boards. With the increased demand for automotive electronics, Unitech has tapped into automotive radar boards and photographic lens boards, both with a high threshold. These two products largely drove the operating momentum of Unitech. In Q118, the annual growth rate is estimated to increase despite fewer working days. Compared with other HDI manufacturers who focus on SLP, Unitech has already undertaken trial production with clients. Larger quantities of SLP are expected to be produced in the third quarter next year, with a focus on non-iPhone users.    

        In 2017, Unitech had a capital expenditure of NT$2 billion. In 2018, the Taiwan plant expects to have a capital expenditure of NT$1~1.5 billion for the purposes of debottlenecking and expansion. Due to the long delivery of equipment, the Taiwan plant’s capacity will increase by 15% by the end of this year.

        Furthermore, considering the recent wastewater discharge of plants in Kunshan, it is rumored that the local government plans to have the plants shut down. Unitech has no plant set up in Kunshan; however, as its Shanghai Plant is located in a prosperous development zone, Unitech has started to communicate with the government with regard to relocation, for which the government will grant allowances. In response to relocation and business expansion, Unitech plans to build a new plant in Nantong, Jiangsu Province. The construction of the new plant has started and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year. The new plant is expected to start operation in 2020 with an initial monthly capacity of 1 million square feet. The new plant has been built through private capital and will specialize in the production of HDI/rigid-flex boards/automotive boards with an estimated annual revenue of NT$6 billion. (Source: Money DJ)