Since the second half of the year, the severe epidemic around Southeast Asian countries has forced some manufacturers to suspend work or reduce production. According to a survey by the Statistics Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), 33 of 98 manufacturers have stopped taking orders - a decrease of US$35 million from June. This amount is less than one-thousandth of the overall export order indicating a significant impact. 

Impact analysis 

At present, Taiwanese PCB manufacturers not only have their main strength through factories in China but also through the layouts carried in Southeast Asia. Among them, Thailand is currently the most concentrated area, and Apex, APCB, and Chin Poon have all set up factories in the locality. Besides this, Apex is the only manufacturer that does not have factories in Taiwan or the mainland - only production capacity in Thailand, while GBM has already established its plant in Malaysia. In this wave of the epidemic outbreak in Southeast Asian countries, only the GBM factory in Malaysia was reported in July to have employees infected with COVID-19, causing the factory to shut down temporarily. Fortunately, the revenue of this plant accounts only for a small proportion so it did not significantly impact operations. According to production and sales data analysis in the second quarter of 2021, the output value by Taiwanese PCB manufacturers in Southeast Asia only accounts for 2~3% of the overall. Therefore, the epidemic around Southeast Asian countries has exerted little direct impact on Taiwan’s PCB industry. Nonetheless, attention should be paid to the impact caused by the epidemic on other electronic supplies.

 

With the spread of the Delta virus, a new wave of epidemics has emerged in Asian countries. Although Taiwan has handled the epidemic well in recent times, the slow progress of vaccinations in Southeast Asia has resulted in delayed control of the epidemic. Importantly, some of these countries are production centers for electronic components. For example, Malaysia is the main area of passive components and semiconductor back-end chip packaging and testing worldwide. However, lockdown measures have been extended once again through the implementation of the "Comprehensive Lockdown Control Order" in June, and there is not yet any indication of its end. China and Vietnam have also blocked the main ports within the country to control the epidemic, worsening the original shipping shortage and port clogging. Given the aforementioned control measures implemented because of the epidemic, this will cause increased problems for the electronic supply chain’s shipping. This ultimately further aggravates the problem of material shortages in the second half of the year.