ZDT-KY launched its first merger and acquisition (M&A) operation since it has been listed using the share swap process to acquire the over the counter (OTC) PCB peer firm, BoardTek. After finalizing the share exchange, BoardTek will terminate OTC trading, withdraw from public offerings, and become another PCB factory to obtain and terminate OTC trading following T-mac Techvest. Regarding PCB industry competition, the industry will follow a trend where the more robust companies always triumph while the existing space for small factories with no competitive niche will decrease daily.

 

    Last year, HannStar intensively participated in private equity funds and stock exchange to acquire up to 24% equity of Career, a flexible board factory, to become its largest shareholder. This was an important start for the wave of the PCB industry’s consolidation.

 

    Considering the current competitive condition of the overall Taiwan PCB industry, the situations continue to show that the stronger always develop better while the small and medium-sized PCB factories face the problem of difficult market financing. Technically, large PCB factories are remaining to enhance HDI (high-density Interconnect), HDI Anylayer, rigid-flex boards, SLP (substrate-like PCB), and other innovative technologies and cope with the clients’ tendency towards lightweight, slim, and compact 3C electronic designs. They are also venturing into new product application capacities such as semiconductor COF and the use of high technology thresholds to keep competitors, including the Chinese PCB factories, at bay. Even if the competitors aim to cross the threshold of high-tech competition, they will still have to encounter the enormous financial needs for technology upgrades.

 

    The current 3C electronics-related products focus on HDI Anylayer process planning for PCB designs and even the mainstream design development of automobile PCBs is following this lead. The HDI is moving towards HDI Anylayer process development, the application of which has significantly increased within two years. Since large PCB factories have sufficient funds, they have access to the technology and increase its production capacity to take orders, resulting in orders being monopolized by large factories. Unimicron, Compeq, Tripod, HannStar, and ZDT-KY have also steadily capitalized on their production scale. (News source: cnYES)