TAOYUAN CITY, TAIWAN – The Covid-19 pandemic effect on numerous end-products slowed the growth rate for HDI in the first quarter, the TPCA said. Taiwanese high-end HDI makers suffered relatively minor impact, however, as the HDI sector grew 7.5%.

Demand for high-end computing chips and high-speed memory remained high, and such demand also drove soaring ABF substrate production. IC substrates topped all other products, with an annual growth rate of 18.6%.

Growth of IC substrates and HDI boards were the key elements to sustain the total output value of the Taiwan cross-strait PCB industry from backtracking. In the past two years, Taiwan-invested enterprises manufactured some 63% of their products in mainland China. The ratio dropped to 60.7% in the first quarter of 2020.

The pandemic impacts in the first quarter were significant across the strait, yet outcomes for the respective regions unfolded in contrasting manners. The importance of diversified manufacturing bases cannot be stressed enough, the trade group says. Based on the product segmentation of the first quarter, construction of 5G cell sites and large data centers maintained their implementation paces from the second half of 2019 and were not impacted by the pandemic.

Rigid-flex PCB sales are intertwined with those of smartphones and their multi-lenses, batteries and wireless earphones. Various degrees of impacts were observed in the first quarter. Growth fell sharply from 2019 to 4.3% in the first quarter.

As smartphone sales plunged, flexible printed circuit board demand fell 8.9%. Multilayer PCBs (4 layers and above) are heavily used in the automobile industry, and flat car sales figures contributed to a 4.6% drop for those boards in the first quarter.

The Covid-19 pandemic is still in full swing and will take some time to settle; its unprecedented impacts on the global economy are yet to be determined, TPCA said. Electronic end-product production is expected to decline this year. Vigorous demand for 5G cell sites, network equipment and servers are still projected. While the PCB industry in Taiwan benefits from the predominance on mid- and high-end products, TPCA is optimistic about the second half of 2020.

Register now for PCB West, the leading conference and exhibition for the printed circuit board industry! Coming this September to the Santa Clara Convention Center. pcbwest.com 

• Prev
• Next