According to data from PCB industry agencies, the total output value of Taiwan’s PCB manufacturers reached NT$249.2 billion (US$8.198 billion) in the third quarter of 2022, the highest level in the third quarter. About 90% of them come from listed companies, which are generally large in scale, of which rigid PCB and IC substrates account for about 68%, and flexible PCB account for about 32%.
60% of Taiwan’s PCB manufacturing revenue comes from mainland China
Industry organizations pointed out that although in the fourth quarter of 2022, affected by the shutdown of Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory, Taiwan’s PCB sales fell to a certain extent, but Taiwanese PCB manufacturing revenue still exceeded NT$200 billion for six consecutive quarters.
Benefited from the decline in the exchange rate and the strong performance of the first three quarters, Taiwanese PCB manufacturing revenue will still reach NT$903.3 billion (approximately US$30.286 billion) in 2022, an increase of 10.5% from NT$817.8 billion in the previous year (denominated in US dollars)
Even under the impact of the global epidemic and high inflation, as well as the decline in terminal demand, Taiwan’s PCB manufacturing revenue will hit a new high in 2022, reaching NT$903.3 billion. It is estimated that the annual revenue in 2023 will reach NT$917.8 billion, with a growth rate of was 1.6%.
Revenue of Taiwan’s PCB industry hits a new high
Although PCB demand in the consumer electronics sector shrank in the third quarter, demand for high-end smartphones (especially iPhones), servers and auto parts remained strong, becoming the main source of growth for Taiwan’s PCB makers. For IC substrates, ABF’s third-quarter output value increased by about 40% year-on-year due to strong demand for HPC (high-performance computing), while the BT segment only increased slightly.
Thanks to the strong demand for high-end smartphones and notebook computers, the output value of flexible PCBs also increased significantly year-on-year in the third quarter.Industry organizations pointed out that in the third quarter of 2022, the output values of PCB-related glass cloth/cloth, flexible copper clad laminate, copper clad laminate and copper foil were NT$12.79 billion, NT$2.86 billion, NT$106.16 billion and NT$38.05 billion, respectively.
Although the fourth quarter is traditionally a peak season for the PCB industry, weak demand for consumer electronics due to inflation and high inventory levels has negatively impacted the business of PCB manufacturers.Industry agencies estimate that the total PCB output value in the fourth quarter of 2022 will be NT$264.4 billion, an increase of 6.1% quarter-on-quarter and 9.8% year-on-year, while the total output value for the whole year of 2022 will be NT$933.3 billion, an increase of 14.1%.
The growth trend of electric vehicles is obvious
Looking forward to 2023, as car companies continue to develop electric vehicles, Taiwan-based multi-format suppliers have deployed vehicles. Among others, the PCB industry is expected to benefit greatly from this growth trend.
According to industry organizations, Taiwan’s PCB industry continues to advance amid market headwinds. Although almost the entire electronics supply chain is facing market headwinds, it is expected that Taiwan’s PCB output value will grow to new heights in 2022 and will continue to advance further in 2023. This was primarily due to an increase in higher value production.
Taiwanese PCB product structure in 2022
From the perspective of product structure, 26.7% of flexible boards, 26.3% of traditional multilayer boards, 19.1% of carrier boards, 19% of HDI, 1.4% of flexible and rigid boards, and 7.5% of others.
Benefiting from the strong demand for iPhone and Macbook products, the proportion of flexible boards surpassed multilayer boards for the first time to become the main shipment of Taiwanese PCBs, while carrier boards followed the hot semiconductor market and maintained a substantial growth of more than 30% for seven consecutive quarters. The growth rate in 2022 will be even higher. As high as 40.8%, the proportion ranking rose to third.
In terms of application, the top five fields are communication 32.3%, computer 22.8%, semiconductor 19.1%, consumer electronics 10.7%, and automobile 10.5%.In terms of the distribution of production bases, last year about 60.6% of Taiwanese PCBs were in mainland China, 37.1% were in Taiwan, and about 2.3% were in others. It is mainly due to the rapid growth of carrier boards, which increases the proportion of Taiwanese production in Taiwan.
Overseas production is concentrated in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. In response to geopolitical conflicts and international customers’ layout plans for supply chains, China The PCB industry in Taiwan has once again risen southward.
In 2022, the total output value of the PCB industry chain in Taiwan, China, at home and abroad will be 1.32 trillion, with an annual increase of 2.9%, of which PCB manufacturing will be 903.3 billion, with an annual increase of 10.5%, PCB equipment will be 67.3 billion, with an annual decrease of 0.9%, and PCB materials will be 358.1 billion, with an annual decrease 11.8%.
PCB industry forecast in 2023
Looking forward to 2023, industry organizations said that this year is still quite a challenging year, but benefiting from the stabilization of the external environment, all links in the industrial chain are expected to gradually pick up, which will bring momentum to the electronics manufacturing industry. One is also expected to profit.
It is expected that this year, with the new wave of AI revolution, the growth of global high-end computing chips and servers, the growth of electric vehicles driven by the wave of environmental protection, and the continuous expansion of the production capacity of substrate factories, the performance of Taiwanese PCB manufacturing is expected to reverse in the second half of the year.
Conclusion
According to the analysis of industry organizations, consumer products were in a headwind last year, but the demand for high-end applications such as carrier boards, electric vehicles, and servers was supported, which became a strong source of growth momentum for PCB manufacturing.
On the other hand, the key to high-end PCB manufacturing Raw materials and equipment are still highly dependent on the supply of foreign manufacturers. Although PCB materials and equipment in Taiwan have gradually moved towards high-end manufacturing processes, their penetration rate in high value-added markets is still low. This is also the reason for the innovation of PCB industry chain in Taiwan Upgrading is an important topic that urgently needs to break through the bottleneck.
