In 2019, the global PCB industry saw a decline in end-use demand where the shipments of smartphones, which account for significant part of PCB applications, fall by -4.6% for consecutive three years, which is higher than those of the last year and the year before last. Due to the lack of best-selling products in the market and the foreign exchange rate, the global PCB output of 2019 is US$ 68.3 billion which falls by -1.2% when compared to US$ 69.1 billion in 2018. The reason why the global PCB output remained steady over 2019 is the 5G infrastructure in the early stage. Initially, the global market has looked forward for the long-awaited 5G opportunities in 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted this. Despite this, the four major PCB industries in Taiwan, China, Japan and Korea have competed against each other for 5G opportunities and are waiting for the dawn at the end of the pandemic.

Chinese companies have the 5G market and actively build their own industry chain 
　　The Chinese PCB companies have grasped a global market share of 26.5% in 2019, up from 23.0% in 2018. They are the only one whose market share rose in 2019 with an output growth rate of 13.9%. The most important factor is that 5G small cells facilitate the high growth of suppliers related to PCBs. While Huawei has been boycotted since the China–United States trade war last year, all counties in the world tend to adopt Huawei’s equipment. There is, therefore, room for Huawei to increase its market share in 5G. In addition to Huawei, products of Chinese PCB companies, such as Shennan Circuits company, Zhuhai Founder PCB, Bomin Electronics, Sun & Lynn Circuits and Suntak, have been used in most of 5G infrastructure equipment in Mainland China, which greatly drives the Chinese PCB output between 2019 and 2021. Additionally, the supply chain of 5G infrastructure has become complete while Chinese PCB material companies are increasing the self-sufficiency of materials. The Chinese PCB industry has created a one-stop supply train. Although the world is still fighting against the pandemic, the Chinese government has still been investing more in 5G infrastructure and driving its internal demand. Its national policies help Chinese companies to be more powerful during the 5G competition.

Japanese companies possess high-end 5G materials and technologies
　　When compared to the steady market shares of Taiwanese, Chinese and Korean companies, the domestic and foreign PCB output of Japanese companies reached up to US$ 11.82 billion in 2019 and fell to 17.3% from 19.1% in 2018, which is translated to the biggest decline of 10.4% in market share among all countries. From the viewpoint of product strategies of Japanese PCB companies, Japanese flexible PCB companies have embraced the strategies for emerging applications in the automotive, robot and biomedical sectors to avoid profits from being reduced caused by fierce competition in smartphone application. The results are still yet to be observed. However, it can be expected that in the 5G competition, Japanese companies focus more on the business opportunities of various emerging and niche applications (such as robots, medical sensing, etc.) after 5G devices became more popular than those of the infrastructure in the early stages and smartphone PCBs. In addition, since Japanese companies have a powerful business edge in materials, they will serve a more important decisive role in the PCB materials for 5G. For instance, Panasonic and Hitachi Chemical have developed comprehensive HF/high speed materials, including those for substrate, rigid PCBs and flexible PCBs. Murata, Kuraray, and Kaneka have developed their own flexible PCB materials. Mitsubishi Gas Chemical focuses on the development of HF substrate based on BT. Thanks to their progress in 5G PCB materials, there is no doubt that Japan is the most competitive country in the world, which allows the Japanese PCB industry to take the plunge.

With the help of its nation, Korean companies compete in the 5G battlefield
　　While the Korean PCB industry have not stand out in recent years, it still has a steady market share due to its domestic brands. Its domestic and foreign output in 2019 reaches US$ 9.22 billion and falls by -4.8%. However, LG Innotek, one of the key Korean PCB companies, decided to officially withdraw from the PCB market in the mid-2020. SEMCO also stopped HDI production in China. The fact that other Korean companies can make up the difference is still yet to be observed. For their 5G competition strategies, Samsung focuses on the development for 5G systems at 28GHz microwave to differentiate itself from Huawei which focuses on Sub 6G. It is estimated that it will compete against Nokia and Ericsson for the U.S., European, and Japanese markets. For the product strategies of Korean PCB companies, although the business opportunities driven by small cells are limited, Samsung, LG and Hyundai will form an industry chain alliance to compete for smartphone or vehicle 5G applications. It is worth noting that almost key components and parts used for Korean 5G equipment are supplied by Japanese companies. The Japan-South Korea trade dispute certainly will affect Korea’s development of 5G infrastructure.

5G drives the technology upgrading for the Taiwanese semiconductor and PCB industry chain
　　The Taiwanese PCB industry still enjoys a steady growth despite of fiercer competition in recent years. It has a 31.4% market share in 2019, which ranks No.1 in the world. For the 5G development, Taiwan has an edge on advanced semiconductor and high-end PCB manufacturing and technologies. For instance, the demand for chips, ABF subtrate, IC subtrate, multi-layer HF rigid PCB required by 5G infrastructures has been emerging. The material manufacturers also focus on 5G materials. For instance, Unimicron Technology, Taiwan Union Technology, and Kinsus have invested in new production capacities for high-end smart manufacturing and 5G communication. As the high-end product applications have a promising future, it can be estimated that the market competition will be fiercer. Taiwan’s inherent IT advantages will provide synergistic effects for Taiwanese PCB industry.

The advent of 5G helps us make it through
　　The impact of Covid-19 on the global economies has not ceased yet, such as the shortage of materials and labor in Mainland Chain and the city lockdown in the U.S. and European markets, which has caused a decline in orders. However, the Covid-19 pandemic is different from the SARS pandemic in 2003, in terms of pandemic surveillance. Each country has surveilled the development of the pandemic via digital technologies and we expect the “opportunities” for 5G systems, cloud and AI, such as the face mask matchmaking system, remote learning, smart health and AI risk controller. So the future digital lifestyles start appearing in advance. The overall development trend in 2020 shows that 5G is still the key momentum to drive the growth of the industry and economy. At the end of the pandemic, it is believed that 5G can invigorate the global industries.