Positioning in High-End Track: PCB Listed Companies Frequently Expand Production

Securities Daily Reporter Ding Rong

On March 18, Pengding Holdings (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Pengding Holdings”) announced that it agreed for its wholly-owned subsidiary Qingding Precision Electronics (Huaian) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Qingding Precision”) to sign a project investment agreement with the Huaian Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee, planning to invest 11 billion yuan to build a high-end PCB (printed circuit board) production base.

Pengding Holdings’ expansion of investment is not an isolated case; recently, listed companies in the PCB industry have been frequently expanding production. Fu Yifu, a special researcher at SuShang Bank, told Securities Daily: “PCB companies are densely deploying high-end capacity mainly due to the explosive growth in structural demand for high-end PCBs driven by AI (artificial intelligence) development. AI servers and AI edge products are experiencing a surge in market demand for high-multilayer, high-frequency, high-speed, high-density interconnect PCBs, which has become the industry’s growth engine.”

According to Pengding Holdings’ announcement, Qingding Precision has won the state-owned construction land use rights for the 2025 GGK33 plot in Huaian City. The investment will be used to build a high-end PCB project production base on this land. Pengding Holdings stated: “This investment is part of the company’s overall strategic plan, seizing the wave of AI technology development, accelerating the layout of high-end PCB production, and helping to expand the company’s operational scale, promote technological upgrades and product iterations across various product lines, thereby improving the company’s operational efficiency.”

Pengding Holdings’ investment plan in the Thailand park is also underway. According to a December 2025 announcement, the company plans to invest a total of 4.297 billion yuan to build manufacturing facilities and supporting infrastructure in the Thailand park, as well as to invest simultaneously in capacity expansion for high-end HDI (High-Density Interconnect) and other products, with a project cycle throughout 2026.

Besides Pengding Holdings, listed companies such as Shenghong Technology (Huizhou) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Shenghong Technology”) and Hushi Electronics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “ShuDian Co., Ltd.”) have also recently disclosed investment plans.

Shenghong Technology’s investment plan for 2026, released on March 13, shows that the company and its subsidiaries plan to invest up to 20 billion yuan in total, with fixed assets investment not exceeding 18 billion yuan. The scope includes new factory buildings, engineering construction, equipment purchase, automation line upgrades, and other projects, with equity investment plans not exceeding 2 billion yuan.

On March 7, ShuDian Co., Ltd. announced that it approved its wholly-owned subsidiary Kunshan Huli Microelectronics Co., Ltd. to invest in the construction of a new printed circuit board production project and supporting facilities, producing high-layer, high-frequency, high-density interconnect, and high-throughput PCBs. The total planned investment for this project is about 5.5 billion yuan.

Yuan Shuai, Deputy Secretary-General of the Zhongguancun IoT Industry Alliance, told Securities Daily: “From the perspective of the global PCB industry’s competitive landscape, there is a clear stratification. Competition is fierce in the mid-to-low end, with low product added value; while in the high-end sector, the development of the AI industry demands higher technical and process standards for PCB products, and the product value also increases accordingly. Therefore, positioning in the high-end track will be a key factor for future corporate competition.”

In the future, the concentration of the PCB industry will continue to increase. “Profitability will concentrate among leading companies, while smaller companies will be accelerated out of the market. Companies with technological barriers, customer certification, and global capacity will become the main drivers of industry development,” Fu Yifu said.