Taiwan PCB makers have to strengthen their investment in R&D of high-end processes to extend their technological lead over Chinese rivals who are fast catching up, a Digitimes report quoted C.M. Lee, chairman of Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA), as saying.
According to Lee, Taiwan now still maintains the highest share, at 31.3%, of the global PCB supply market, but China has seen its market share reach 23% and steadily trending upward. He added that Taiwan makers now boast absolute superiority to their China counterparts in high-density interconnect (HDI) boards, IC substrates, substrate-like PCBs involving high-end process technologies, with their China peers including Shennan Circuits, Wus Printed Circuit and Kinwong Electronic still lagging behind by two to three years.