[Reporter Zhuo Yijun/Special Report] The rise of the AI wave is reshaping the new value of PCB, the "mother of industry". Upstream materials such as fiberglass cloth, copper foil, copper foil substrate, and drill pins have been in short supply since last year, triggering a wave of price increases. With the next generation of AI With the launch of servers, the supply gap continues to expand, and new alternative materials have also become the target of market pursuit. PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) is considered to be expected to replace fiberglass cloth and quartz cloth. Taihong (8039) and Taijun (6269) are included in Nvidia’s list. The PTFE partner of NVLink PTFE switch board (switcher), Yadian (4939) also develops high-end PTFE materials. Taihong, Taijun, and Yadian bucked the trend last week and rose against the trend, with their stock prices rising by 1.96%, 28.9%, and 6.39% respectively.
According to statistics from TPCA (Taiwan Circuit Board Association), the domestic and overseas output value of Taiwan PCB material manufacturers in the first half of the year reached NT$271.6 billion, an annual increase of 38.6%. The growth mainly comes from high-frequency and high-speed CCL (copper foil substrate) in hard board materials. In addition, key materials such as fiberglass cloth and copper foil continue to be in short supply.
Affected by tight production capacity and rising raw material costs, material prices have gradually increased, further pushing up the overall PCB materials industry output value; upstream material shortages are caused by Low CTE, Low High-end materials such as Dk2 and HVLP4 are gradually expanding to include CCL, high-end PCBs, ABF carrier boards, process equipment and consumables. Even if manufacturers are actively expanding production, AI demand is strong, and customer certification and yield improvement will take time. New supply will still be difficult to completely fill the gap in the short term. It is estimated that the tight supply chain will continue until at least 2027.
Taihong's PTFE material has been included in Huida's supply chain, which means that PTFE has become Huida's new generation PCB material. It has the opportunity to replace fiberglass cloth or quartz cloth and solve the problem of limited upstream material production capacity. Currently, Taihong's PTFE is undergoing customer verification and sample delivery, and will be introduced into mass production in 2027 at the earliest.
Taijun has continued to promote transformation in the past three years, including the integration of new materials upstream. Materials ranging from Modified PI (modified polyimide), LCP (liquid crystal polymer) to PTFE have been invested in research and development, and customized designs are carried out according to customer needs. Currently, it has participated in the next-generation platform development project of AI server major customers. The relevant new material solutions continue to be tested and certified, and are expected to enter the next-generation new platform.
AsiaDian's high-end PTFE materials are being verified through upstream and downstream supply chain partners. If customer certification is successfully completed and mass production is introduced, it is expected to make a significant contribution to revenue.
