Output Value of PCB Industry in Taiwan Increased by 10.9% in The First Nine Months of The Year

Benefiting from the increasing demand foremerging technologies such as AI servers and artificial intelligence, as wellas industry players entering the low orbit satellite supply chain, the demandfor PCB (Printed Circuit Boards) has been boosted. According to the lateststatistics on the output value of the Printed Circuit Board industry releasedby the Ministry of Economic Affairs on the 5th, the output value increased by10.9% annually from January to September this year, and it is expected toreturn to a positive growth track for the whole year.

PCBs are known as the mother of theelectronics industry and are essential basic components of electronic products.

Benefiting from the remote businessopportunities driven by the epidemic, digital transformation of enterprises,and the expansion of emerging technology applications, the output value of the PCB(Printed Circuit Board) industry has shown stable growth in recent years.Although the demand for consumer electronics products has cooled down due tothe impact of the Russia Ukraine war and rising inflation rates since thesecond half of 2022, with the support of application demands such as 5G,high-performance computing, and automotive electronics, the output value stillexceeded 400 billion yuan, setting a new historical high with an annualincrease of 9.9%. However, in 2023, with the continuous slowdown of globaleconomic momentum, the output value turned negative with a growth rate of24.5%.

According to analysis, Rigid PCB and FPC werethe main driving force for the rebound in output value from January toSeptember this year. Looking at the main products, Taiwan's Printed Circuit Boardsare mainly composed of Rigid PCB, FPC Printed Circuit Boards and IC carrierboards. In 2024, with the gradual recovery of downstream orders and theinjection of new application orders such as low orbit satellites, the outputvalue of Rigid PCB and FPC Printed Circuit Boards from January to Septemberreached NT $127.6 billion (New Taiwan Dollars), an annual increase of 17.5%; Interms of IC boards, benefiting from the wave of artificial intelligence, thedemand for AI servers has increased, but the demand for computers, networkproducts, and other products has not significantly recovered, offsetting someof the growth. As a result, the output value of IC boards from January toSeptember was NT $78.3 billion (New Taiwan Dollars), an annual increase of2.2%.

It was also mentioned that as Taiwanesebusinesses move servers, network communication and other products back toTaiwan for production, Taiwan's demand for PCB Printed Circuit Boards hasincreased, and the direct export ratio of the Printed Circuit Board industryhas shown a downward trend year by year. From January to September this year,the direct export ratio of the Printed Circuit Board PCB industry was 61.6%, adecrease of 9.4 percentage points compared to 2017, with a significant decreaseof 14.7 percentage points in Rigid PCB and FPC Printed Circuit Boards.

In addition, according to the preliminaryreport of the 2023 Factory Calibration and Operation Survey, there are 559 PCB PrintedCircuit Board manufacturers in Taiwan in 2023, mainly small and medium-sizedenterprises with less than 200 employees, accounting for about 84%. Among them,Taoyuan City has 359 (64.2%) the most, followed by New Taipei City with 124(22.2%). Nearly 90% of the operators are concentrated in northern Taiwan, whichhas the advantage of industrial clustering.