【Focus】The PCB industry is recovering?

Entering 2023, the PCB industry will be overwhelmed by dark clouds, making people breathless.

However, the prosperity of the PCB industry seems to be gradually showing light recently, which can be seen from the recent orders of several major PCB manufacturers and the improvement of capacity utilization.

Shennan Circuits (002916.SZ) stated on the investor interaction platform on May 17 that the company's recent comprehensive capacity utilization rate has rebounded slightly compared with the first quarter of 2023.

Suntak Technology (002815.SZ) was surveyed by the agency from May 12 to 17, 2023. The company stated that the current production capacity utilization rate of Suntak Technology is about 80%. In 2022, the capacity utilization rate will be around 75%. The company has dredged up the capacity process of the production line, and the capacity utilization rate has risen relatively slightly.

Bicheng Electronic Technology also stated on the investor interaction platform on May 19 that at present, the capacity utilization rate of its subordinate business companies is mostly 80%-90%. With the recovery of domestic and foreign economies and the continuous introduction of new customers, the company's order volume in April and May has increased compared with the first quarter. Especially the new product Rogers RO3006 has been favored by new and old customers once it is launched.

On the downstream side, as ChatGPT became popular, the usage of servers/switches increased. According to the survey data, AI server PCBs generally have 20-28 layers, while traditional server PCBs are less than 16 layers. The value of AI server PCB is 5-6 times that of ordinary servers. With the implementation of AI large models and applications, the market demand for AI servers is increasing, and PCB will usher in a huge development increment.