Hitachi Chemical (Japan) recently announced that it will invest approximately 7.5 billion Yen into setting up a subsidiary company in Taiwan and will construct a plant that produces high-performance additive material (Cooper Clad Laminate) for PCB, which will mainly be used in such applications as 5G, advanced drive assistance systems (ADAS), and artificial intelligence (AI), among others. However, Taiwanese manufacturers have pointed out that, although such investment is consistent with the investment approach for future demands shared by the current industry and raw material dealers, the timing of the mass production is a bit late; as a result, Taiwanese factories should still enjoy the advantages of cost and product pricing. Thus, Taiwanese factories should not be affected.    

 

             The new investment of Hitachi Chemical (Japan) is expected to start mass production in April 2020. Meanwhile, electro-deposited copper-foil manufacturers like Co-Tech, TUC, Unitech, and BoardTek are aggressively investing in developing high-frequency and high-speed applications on 5G and Adas. Of those companies, the shipment by Unitech is considered to be the largest.      

 

             Furthermore, TUC is expanding its productivity for high-frequency and high-speed CCL and is expected to start operation in the fourth quarter of this year. The application products will be related to 5G telecom as the company crosses over from traditional PCB to IC substrate. TUC is planning to issue NT$1.5 billion of convertible company bonds in order to enrich its operational capital. 

       

        Hitachi Chemical (Japan) used to have a PCB and upper-stream raw material factory in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, but TPT (Taiwan PCB TechVest) purchased it from Hitachi Chemical in 2015 for NT$257 million, transforming it into Hitachi Chemical Company (Taiwan) Limited. Such purchase rendered TPT the largest photoelectric board factory in the world and enabled it to shift into the automobile market. As for Hitachi Chemical (Japan), it will mainly focus on the development and production of upper-stream raw materials for PCB in Taiwan. (Source of information: cnYES)