Taiwan's major automotive PCB makers Ching-Poon Industrial, Tripod Technology and Dynamic Electronics are set to sustain high capacity utilization throughout first-half 2021, but they are cautious about shipment prospects for the second half, according to industry sources.
Automakers have since late 2020 significantly increased orders for chips, passive components and PCBs to thicken their inventories amid increasingly strong global car sales recovery, allowing automotive PCB makers to see their capacity fully booked for 4-5 months ahead, compared to less than one month seen in the past two years, the sources said.
As ride-hailing practices and public transportation vehicles have been regarded as relatively riskier mobility solutions amid the pandemic, driving vehicles on their own has become the safest option for people, fueling sales of not only cars but also motorcycles, electric bicycles and general bikes, the sources continued.
Orders placed by automotive clients with the three Taiwanese automotive PCB makers are mostly for interior components for traditional fuel-oil cars, and it will take 1-2 years for EV applications to flourish, the sources said.
But the makers are cautious about whether the current booming demand for automotive PCBs will last into the second half of the year, pending on the actual pandemic impacts on the real economy and whether there has been capacity overbooking by automotive clients, the sources said.
