Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA) held the “Industry Key Trends Seminar - PCB Vision in 2019” on February 21 at the TPCA Hall. TPCA and the Science and Technology International Strategy Center of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) jointly released the 2018 annual production, sales, and statistical data that indicated that the cross-strait PCB industry output value reached NT$651.4 billion (about US$21.601 billion), up 5% compared to NT$619.2 billion in 2017. The output value has once again reached a record high, and the overall PCB output value of Taiwanese companies in 2018 was maintained at 31%, taking the lead of the global market share.

Affected by the unclear Sino-US trade agreement, the cooling down of the Chinese economy, political disturbances in the UK and France, major environmental issues, and the slow market growth of mobile phones and other end products in 2019, the Taiwanese cross-strait PCB output value is estimated to increase about 1.5% from last year, reaching approximately NT$661.1 billion. Benefiting from the positive growth of the PCB industry, good sales performances of the equipment and material vendors, and total output value of NT$958.3 billion from Taiwan’s PCB industry chain (PCB manufacturing, PCB equipment, PCB materials) both at home and abroad, the PCB industry reached a new high milestone in 2018.

In the global PCB industry, analyst Jeremy Tung of the ITRI said that in 2018, the global PCB industry continued its growth trend from 2017, with a growth rate of 6.31% and an output value of US$69.1 billion, setting a new record high. The reasons for the continued high output value include three trends (advanced PCB, big-data, and car) and three unexpected events: the slowing down of PC shipments, the short supplies of IC carrier boards, and the explosive growth of Apple smartwatches, Bluetooth headsets, and other peripheral products.

During the meeting, Assistant Manager Lin, Meng-Yuan of Garmin reflected that the future trend of wearable devices would move towards diversity and small-volume/large-variety production. As regulations loosen and the technology matures, the uses of smart wear in medical applications will make revolutionary breakthroughs. Compared with a one-time data health check-up, the accumulation of smart wear data is more beneficial to the medical field for in-depth tracking and observation.

Finally, focusing on the PCB industry in Asia, analyst Jeremy Tung of the ITRI reminded everyone that the current Sino-US trade war is still insufficient to loosen the world factory status of China. How to implement the mainland’s PCB industry standards and subsequent rewards and punishments is currently the focus of follow-up observations in mainland China. (News source: TPCA release)