The global PCB landscape is reshuffled, and 52 manufacturers from mainland China are among the top 122

According to Yahoo News, the rapid rise of manufacturing in mainland China has also reshuffled the global PCB landscape. According to Dr. Hayao Nakahara's survey report, 52 of the world's top 122 PCB manufacturers in 2019 are from mainland China (including Hong Kong). This is a significant increase compared to the data of only 6 mainland Chinese manufacturers in 2000. At the same time, the total revenue of the top 6 mainland manufacturers has also grown from US$961 million in 2000 to US$16.735 billion.

Dr. Hayao Nakahara, President of NTInformation, an authority on global PCB industry research, released the NTI-100 2019 Global Top 100 PCB Ranking and Industry Trends. According to Dr. Hayao Nakahara's survey report, in 2019, a total of 122 manufacturers with revenue exceeding US$100 million were included in the list, an increase of 4 from 118 in 2018.

In terms of regions, China, which has been the world's factory for the past 40 years, has seen rapid growth in supply factories under active policy support. According to the report, in 2019, the number of manufacturers on the list in each region was 52 from China, 27 from Taiwan, 18 from Japan, 12 from South Korea, 4 from the United States, 5 from Europe, and 4 from Southeast Asia. The report analyzed and compared the 2019 data with the 2000 data. In 2000, the United States and Europe had 20 and 16 companies on the list, respectively, but in 2019, only 4 and 5 companies were on the list, compared to the total number of companies on the list in China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, which grew from 83 in 2000 to 109 in 2019, showing the shift and changes in the global PCB industry over the past 20 years.

Taiwan is the world's largest PCB manufacturing region, with total production exceeding US$22 billion in 2019, but in terms of production layout, about 60% of its revenue comes from the mainland.

Although Taiwanese businessmen have continued to invest in mainland China in recent years, due to the combined factors of international trade, COVID-19 and 5G high-end technology layout, the amount of investment in high-end processes in Taiwan by Taiwanese businessmen has hit new highs in recent years. At the same time, in order to diversify their layout, they have also begun to pay attention to other production bases. In terms of production types, multi-layer hard boards, soft boards, HDI boards and IC substrates are the main ones. Overall, Taiwan is more dispersed in the layout of various types of products than competitors in other countries. In the IC substrate area, which is regarded as a battlefield for PCB high-end technology, Taiwan is currently the most important IC substrate manufacturing region in the world, ahead of South Korea, Japan and mainland China.

In Japan, among the top 122 PCB manufacturers in the world in 2000, 51 were Japanese manufacturers. Compared with mainland China, Taiwan, China and South Korea, which have positive growth in the number of manufacturers and output value, the number of Japanese manufacturers has been reduced to 18 in 2019, with total revenue of US$11.183 billion in 2019, a slight decrease from US$11.975 billion in 2000, indicating that the development of Japanese PCB has faced heavy pressure in recent years.

However, the development focus of Japanese manufacturers is on flexible boards and substrates, which account for the largest proportion. The proportion of flexible boards has dropped to 40% due to fierce competition in the mobile phone market. At this stage, the Japanese PCB industry is transforming from communication equipment to emerging applications derived from 5G, such as automobiles, robots, biomedical engineering, etc. The proportion of substrates is gradually increasing. Japanese manufacturers are still the most complete and competitive country in the world in high-end circuit board materials.

As for Korean manufacturers, the layout of Korean PCB industry depends on two major brands, but Samsung Electronics' mobile phone manufacturing has shifted to Vietnam, FPC production has also shifted to Vietnam, all Samsung mobile phone manufacturing bases in mainland China have been closed, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics has also closed its HDI factory in Kunshan. Although South Korea's domestic production accounts for as high as 60%, in recent years, Korean PCB manufacturers are gradually transferring their production bases to overseas regions, mainly in North Vietnam. For example, SI Flex no longer has a production base in South Korea; LG Innotek has closed its HDI and half of its PCB factories in South Korea, and currently only focuses on IC substrates; in terms of product development strategy, in addition to relying on the product strategy of domestic brand manufacturers, in addition to smartphones, semiconductors, infrastructure and consumer products are also included. The product supply is still mainly based on soft boards and substrates, and the proportion is more than 30%.

It is worth noting that among the top 122 PCB manufacturers in the world in 2000, there were only 6 manufacturers from mainland China, of which only Shantou Ultrasonic Printing Co., Ltd. (CCTC) was a local manufacturer, and the others were Hong Kong companies. In 2019, there were 52 manufacturers from mainland China (including Hong Kong). Moreover, the revenue of the top 6 mainland manufacturers also grew from US$961 million in 2000 to a total revenue of US$16.735 billion in 2019 for the 52 companies.

The report predicts that more mainland manufacturers will be included in the list in the future. Although consumer products are the main application field of mainland PCB production, the products supplied by the mainland are still concentrated in multi-layer hard boards, accounting for as much as 80%. In the past year, the mainland has continuously increased its investment in 5G infrastructure and strongly promoted 5G domestic demand. With the support of national policies, the one-stop supply chain strategy of the mainland-funded PCB industry will continue to develop strongly in the future.