The high demand for the fifth-generation mobile communications (5G) market has encouraged major PCB manufacturers across the Taiwan Straits to initiate a production expansion competition in order to welcome new business opportunities. In addition to SCC, mainland China’s “National Team”, which has undergone production expansion of over NT$6.5 billion, and Taiwanese manufacturers, such as ZDT, Unimicron, Unitech, Compeq, Kinsus, Flexium, and Tripod are launching process upgrades and investment plans in the new year. It has been estimated that the total capital expenditure of Taiwan factories in 2020 will exceed NT$50 billion while challenging the current high record.

 

According to the plans of various manufacturers, the capital expenditures of global PCB leader, ZDT, is expected to exceed NT$12.6 billion in 2020 as a response to the acceleration of global 5G infrastructure demand and the growth of the related terminal devices, Netcom equipment, cloud computing servers, etc., while rewriting the current record. ZDT also plans to invest in India and mainland factories in the new year to develop a one-stop purchase strategy.

       

The peak of ZDT’s last capital expenditures was in 2018. In 2020, several investment layouts by its subsidiary, Avary, in the mainland and in India are expected to exceed historical record highs. Shen Chang-Fang, the Chairman of ZDT, said that due to several investment plans and other investments in lights-out manufacturing on the factory premises, the development of “ONE ZDT” (one-stop purchase strategy), the improvement of the product line layout, and the investments are anticipated to achieve a new high in 2020. ZDT’s legal representative estimates that the company will continue to benefit from the high demand for carrier boards, MPI, and LCP flexible boards in the future. Meanwhile, the upgrade of the flexible boards required for 5G smartphones in 2020 is expected to drive profitable performances.

 

Other major PCB manufacturers, such as Unimicron, Unitech, Compeq, Kinsus, Flexium, and Tripod, etc. are also actively making mid-to-high-end production capacity investments. Currently, Unimicron is recognized to have invested the most capital and the company further predicts that its capital expenditures will reach NT$17.18 billion in 2020 while scheduling to increase its production capacity of high-end IC carrier boards in Taiwan and expand its mainland plant. Compeq also plans to invest in Taiwan and its Chongqing plant will open high-end HDI and SLP manufacturing processes in 2021. Unitech, on the other hand, plans to increase its production capacity in 2020 while preliminarily focusing on rigid-flex boards and exploring niche applications. (News source: Economic Daily News)