During the grand opening ceremony of CPCA Show 2018 on March 20^th, Chairman You Lei spoke on the forum that the PCB industry in China grew by 9.6% in 2017 and that the gradual shift of production capacity to China has increased the demand for soft PCBs, resulting in 39% growth in revenue on equipment and materials and 94% growth in profit. According to You Lei, China’s industrial reform has turned to focus on the manufacturing industry. In terms of capital, funding is no longer a limiting factor and the diversification of financing methods will help enterprises reduce operating costs and expand their development space. Last year, a total of 11 PCB companies went public to reach a record high in history.

 

       In recent years, the PCB industry has also continued to innovate and shifted investment towards the central Jiangxi and Hubei areas. CPCA is actively promoting the landing plan for smart manufacturing to take root in all the industries. As smart manufacturing is still in its initial stage, networking is extremely important. For this, CPCA has been drafting the PCB equipment communication protocol specifications and collecting opinions for the draft in a hope to reach consensus in the industry. Chairman You Lei also stated that this is an era of smart manufacturing, and the construction of a complete smart factory network will release tremendous value for the enterprises. Following the development of enterprises in unmanned and automation fields, software design companies are paying more and more attention to cooperation with the industry.
 

Looking ahead towards this year, the industry still faces the challenges of upstream raw material pressure, worker shortages, and severe environmental protection issues. However, it is optimistic that in the coexistence era of opportunities and challenges, the presence of IoT, high capital operation and smart manufacturing will render the Chinese PCB industry a good chance to be stronger, better and bigger. (Source: TPCA)