2019 is considered the first year of 5G. The printed circuit board (PCB) industry expects good prospects in the second half of the year, regardless of infrastructure or related equipment, and manufacturers are actively laying out their plans. Among them, copper clad laminates (CCL), which are essential materials in the PCB industry, benefit from the thriving 5G market and the demand growth of network equipment. Taiwan Union Technology Corp, Elite Material Co., Ltd (EMC), and ITEQ Corp. all recorded double-digit growth in January.

Taiwan Union Technology’s revenue increased 12.8% in January, reaching NT$1.41 billion and recording the second highest month-on-month growth rate in history. The company benefited from the demand growth for base stations, servers, and Netcom products last year, registering record high revenue of $17.785 billion. To increase the production capacity of 5G products, it is expanding production in both Hsinchu and Changshu and expects to see benefits in Q3. The legal representative said that Taiwan Union Technology is actively laying out high-end product lines, such as 400G switches and 6GHz high-frequency products. However, due to unclear server and 5G base station orders, Q1 operations remain to be seen.

EMC’s revenue enjoyed a month-on-month growth rate of 13.4%, reaching $1.84 billion in January, which was the third highest in the same period. Focusing on 5G business opportunities, EMC is actively developing new applications, including 5G infrastructure, high-end materials for mobile phone chips, and thick copper products for automobile HDI. It is also expanding its new plant in Huangshi, Hubei and establishing an R&D Center in Kunshan. The legal representative believes that more shipments will be placed for Netcom products following the 5G demand and the attention placed by new customers on HDI products. They will be the niche for this year’s operating growth.

ITEQ recorded a revenue of $1.91 billion in January, with its highest month-on-month growth rate ever, 10.9%. ITEQ is ready to mass produce high-frequency/high-speed and low-loss/high-frequency materials. It began shipping 5G high-frequency materials to support sub-6GHz products and has also successfully cut into the supply chains of many telecom equipment suppliers. ITEQ previously said that Netcom products accounted for about 38% of the company’s revenue last year. It is optimistic that the penetration rate of the Purley server platform will continue to grow and the base station will be built before the 5G business transfer. This year’s shipments are expected to rise to nearly 50% level.

ITEQ further pointed out that the 5G transmission rate will be 10 ~ 100 times that of 4G and with smaller coverage. Following an increased demand for base stations, the vast number of antennas and high-frequency millimeter wave transmission technology will make increase the number of base station antennas from a dozen to about a hundred units. Furthermore, under a high-frequency and high-speed environment, the higher the energy consumption, the more easily the signal will be distorted. Therefore, materials with lower dielectric constant, low loss factor, higher reliability and stability, high heat resistance, and high thermal conductivity have become more important.

An industry insider said that the substantial growth of global data traffic would drive network service operators and telecom operators to update equipment to meet demand. The demand for automobile PCBs will increase with the growing popularity of smart cars, self-driving cars, and the car networking concept. Meanwhile, products related to mobile phones will make significant changes upon the emergence of 5G products. (News source: Commercial Times)