The investment clustering effect of PCB manufacturers in Huangshi City, Hubei Province of China has driven the demand for copper clad laminates (CCL). The reinvestment of WUS Printed Circuit into WUS Printed Circuit (Kunshan) has also promoted Unimicron, Dynamic Electronics, and other companies to invest and set up factories in Huangshi. With Elite Material recently laying the foundation for investment projects, it will start production no later than 2019 to serve the nearby local customers and inject funds into the company’s operations.

       PCB industry experts have explained that as Huangshi City is close to Wuhan and can meet the needs of automobile mold plants and heavy industry customers, it has become a key project for local investment promotion in Hubei Province. It can also work with the rejuvenation and incentives of city policies at the old industrial bases in the northeast regions while building dedicated and perfect sewage treatment plants for the PCB industry to attract manufacturers to station there.

       Elite Material stated that the company’s investment and production expansion in its Huangshi plant will be carried out on schedule. After the ground-breaking ceremony in May of this year, trial production is scheduled to start in June, and official production will begin in July or August of next year. This overall plan is in line with the company’s original expectations. After achieving the first-phase production capacity of Elite Material’s Huangshi plant, its monthly production capacity is scheduled to increase up to 600,000 units, and its revenue is expected to pick up in mid-2019 or the second half of 2019.

       Elite Material decided to set up a plant in Huangshi in December of last year. The new plant will be used as one of the planned capacity expansion projects in the Central China region and is targeted to supply the customer groups around Huangshi. The investments being made by Elite Material and other companies are noted as the second batch of local key projects in 2018.

       In addition to Elite Material, the big PCB and IC board maker Unimicron also set up a factory in Huangshi two years ago. It began production and shipments in August and then mass production in Q4 of last year. This year, it expects to generate year-round revenue.

       Unimicron pointed out earlier that the economic scale benefits of the Huangshi plant have gradually risen. It is mass producing and optimizing the product structures to meet the increasing demand mainly for automobile electronics and consumer electronics. According to Unimicron’s previous plan, its Huangshi plant can generate an annual production capacity amounting to NT$5 billion and be expanded in four phases based on customer demand.