(January 21, 2020, Taoyuan)
2019 ended with the advent of 2020. Looking back at 2019, we announced in early 2018 that Taiwanese business had made fruitful results of NT$651.4 billion through the cross-strait PCB industry. Then, issues like globalization and product alternation followed. To Taiwan’s PCB industry, 2019 was a very joyful year. At the beginning of 2020, TPCA has sorted out five major events in 2019-2020 that will affect the development of Taiwan’s PCB industry in 2020. PCB businessowners should keep track of the continuous development and effects of these events.

1.    Sino-US Trade War: Right Side Vs. Bright Side
The turmoil stirred by the global economic slowdown and the Sino-US trade war never stopped in 2019. Instead of the direct impact from tariff barriers, these two issues benefited Taiwan’s PCB industry due to the order transfer and early stocking of customers. Information shows that the 2019 total output of Taiwanese PCB businessowners worldwide will be NT$656.2 billion, maintaining the same growth rate. However, the derived global technology war will stand in the development of the global electronics and high-tech industries. Over the course of the trade war, Taiwanese businessowners began to consider various possibilities in production base shift and industry deployment. Alongside with the preferential policies to encourage the homecoming of Taiwanese businessowners, overseas Taiwanese PCB businessowners have made investment planning amounting to over NT$50 billion. In addition, in late 2019, Samsung Electro-Mechanics confirmed the liquidation of its HDI plant in Kunshan, China, and the possible relocation to other Southeast Asian countries to reduce its dependency on manufacturing in China. This shows that world-leading electronics manufacturers have begun their overseas deployment adjustment after the Sino-US trade war and the commercial operations of 5G.

2.    The 5G Product Skirmish: Now Vs. Forever
Although smartphone sales were sluggish and autonomous cars and electric vehicles were unable to alleviate the downturn of the global automotive market in 2019, the PCB industry has tasted the benefits from the pilot infrastructure deployment of 5G with products still pending for commercial operations. Without a doubt, the ABF substrate, IC substrate and advanced products like HDI required by 5G infrastructure are some of the key factors supporting Taiwan’s PCB industry. As 5G construction is under way, Taiwanese PCB business owners thus began to deploy new capacity in Taiwan for 5G advanced products. Seeing the promising future of 5G advanced products, Chinese manufacturers have progressively entered the related markets, making keen competitions foreseeable. Therefore, only continuous technological upgrading can keep competitors behind.

3.    New Highlights from Mobiles: Surprises Beyond Expectation!
Apart from the advanced products supporting Taiwan’s PCB industry in 2019, the Apple AirPods is a highlight that should not be overlooked. There was a joke that goes “An apple saves Taiwan.” Despite the iPhone shipping stagnancy in recent years, the 2019 sales of the iPhone 11 were better than expected. The surprising rise of the AirPods was unexpected and the dejected Apple has unpredictably pushed the global Bluetooth earphone heat. The 2020 sales of the AirPods are expected to reach  new heights, becoming Apple’s third bestseller. In addition, with the increase from two lenses to three or more lenses of camera phones, leading smartphone brands began to launch smartphones with multiple lenses in 2019, with over 50% having three or more lenses. These two highlights will continue to develop in 2020 and pull up the growth of the rigid-flex PCB.

4.    Two Standards and Three Roadmaps: Accelerating PCB Value Enhancement, Automation Intelligence and Green Production
In 2019, TPCA introduced two standards and three roadmaps to address the objectives and visions in the Taiwan PCB Industry White Paper. These two standards and three roadmaps include the PCBECI and the PCB Equipment Safety Standard and the New-Version Technology Roadmap, Smart Manufacturing Roadmap, and PCB Circular Economy Roadmap. With such, TPCA aims to provide a guide for businessowners to comprehensively review their own competitiveness and development directions. Take smart manufacturing, for example, modeling the semiconductor industry, TPCA announced in September 2019 the world’s first PCBECI (Printed Circuit Board Equipment Communication Interfaces) at SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International) to enhance the efficiency of the applications of intelligent automation by standardizing the communication framework and strengthening the efficiency of intelligence automation with the PCB Equipment Safety Standard. So far, smart manufacturing has become a unanimous trend in the PCB industry, and Smart X Safety will be the pre-requisites for new plant investments in the future. In the middle of the year, TPCA announced the PCB circular economy strategy roadmap ahead of global competitors to promote the transformation and sustainable safety development of Taiwan’s PCB industry by depicting the picture and pointing out the status and difficulties in resource recycling of the PCB industry.

5.    China introduces the “Printed Circuit Board Industry Regulations” to promote industrial upgrading
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China introduced in early 2019 the “Printed Circuit Board Industry Regulations” to define and quantify the following eight standards: industrial deployment and project construction, production scale and technology, quality management, smart manufacturing, green production, energy conservation, integrated resource utilization and environmental protection, safety production, occupational health and social responsibility. These regulations have initiated enthusiastic discussions of countermeasures at the beginning of the proclamation. It is generally believed that these regulations can help the Chinese PCB industry to optimize its deployment and adjust its structure to inhibit vicious competition from the supply-demand disequilibrium of a few years ago. To leading PCB manufacturers, they have complied with and even surpassed the existing standards of local governments in process technology, production safety and green production. It is expected that these regulations will have little influence on leading manufacturers. However, as these regulations have not been legislated and are still used as the government’s guidelines for the self-inspection of businessowners, their effectiveness on industrial transformation awaits further observation.
The global PCB market was pessimistic in early 2019. Looking back at the 2019 performance at the beginning of 2020, the PCB industry has gone through a cold-hot year, with some quite good results. The 5G pilot infrastructure and the highlighted products like the AirPods have compensated the downturn of the global smartphone and automotive markets. Light eventually shone on the globally long awaited 5G business opportunities. According to TPCA Chairperson Chang-Ming Li in the opening address for the 2019 TPCA Show, 5G applications will boost PCB by leaps and bounds in both quantity and price. While challenges are everywhere in the macro environment, manufacturers must enhance competitiveness in four terms: clear positioning, production automation, AI implementation and the circular economy. As the parent of the electronics industry, the PCB industry will play a decisive role in 5G development. Given the unpredictability of the market trends and changes, optimizing competitiveness is the only way to play a key role.