The prospects of 5G antenna products look most promising, and the major manufacturer of FLP, Flexium, is actively engaged in their development. As for Career Technology, who are about to lay off 400 employees in order to adjust its constitution and increase foreign investment, its stock price has been striving to grow in the middle of February. 
       Sales of the Apple iPhone are not doing as well as expected, which is coupled with the slowdown in the introduction of liquid crystal polymer resin (LCP). Career Technology pointed out that its Guanyin plant will, in response to macro-economic changes, dismiss about 434 people. At present, there are 200 to 300 employees at the Guanyin plant, 2,000 at the Shulin plant, with another three plants at Kunshan, Suzhou and Shenzhen in China. There are no other layoffs planned for the future.
        Career Technology announced that its January’s revenue is NT$1.538 billion, an increase of 15.01% year-on-year and a monthly increase of 26.68%. Career Technology indicated that it has benefited mainly from increased customer shipments. It is believed that the growth in revenue has come about because of the new iPhone price reduction strategy, plus the previous models that continue to add to the total turnover with their sales. As for their operations this year, Career Technology says, "it will try hard to do well." 
        The market believes that 5G antennas will be the first to use heterogeneous polyimine (modified-PI), slowing the progress of LCP. Career Technology’s operation, which invests heavily in LCP, may be affected, but Career Technology said that LCP will definitely be adopted as several customers of non-Apple mobile phones will still introduce it. It is estimated that with the entry of 5G mobile phones into the market by 2020, the operation will grow, and the proportion of non-Apple customers will continue to rise in the future. 
        Flexium has announced the launch of a new two-year investment project with NT$10 billion outlay for 5G new products, and it is estimated that antenna products will become the streamline products in the future. 
        In addition, since orders for Unitech's wireless Bluetooth headsets and vehicle radar panel were better than expected, the combined revenue in January has reached NT$1.935 billion, an increase of 16.04% against that of December last year. Capital expenditure has, for two consecutive years, focused on the expansion of manufacturing for rigid-flex PCB.  (News source: Central News Agency)
        The TPCA has further pointed out that the expansion plans of major PCB manufacturers across the strait have sprung up like mushrooms in the past few years. However, as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the "Printed Circuit Board Industry Standards" on February 1, it has, on one hand, affected mainland China’s overall PCB environment, while the changes to the PCB manufacturing layout in China, Japan and Korea should also deserve our continuous attention.
        In addition, the PCB industry has been active, with the wave of booming smart manufacturing, deploying applications with Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing. The TPCA will hold the "Launch Conference of PCBECI Equipment Networking Demo Team " on February 21st, which will introduce the purpose and vision of the PCB equipment networking data integration and smart pre-diagnosis development project. It is expected that the conference should focus on 20 PCB factories and 100 types of networking equipment. In addition, the PCBECI communication protocol (SCES/GEM) will be applied as the standard agreement to achieve the specific benefits of SECS/GEM in the diversified PCB fields, helping to achieve the objectives of data integration and visual smart pre-diagnosis. (News source: Commercial Times)