On September 12, Hongchang Electronic Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hongchang Electronic") released a private placement plan announcement, proposing to raise no more than 1.8 billion yuan for high-end copper clad laminate, prepreg, and advanced packaging film material (GBF) projects, stepping up investment in core printed circuit board (PCB) substrate materials required for AI servers and data centers.
According to the plan disclosed this time, Hongchang Electronic's raised funds will be used for three major projects and to supplement working capital. It plans to invest 1.055 billion yuan (RMB, same below) in a project with an annual output of 13.2 million sheets of high-end copper clad laminate and 31.2 million meters of prepreg at its wholly-owned grandchild company Zhuhai Hongren Electronic Materials Technology Co., Ltd.; invest 95 million yuan in an intelligent and green upgrading and renovation project with an annual output of 9.6 million meters of high-end prepreg at its wholly-owned subsidiary Wuxi Hongren Electronic Materials Technology Co., Ltd.; invest 320 million yuan in an advanced packaging film material project, with the remaining funds used to supplement working capital.
"The company has been deeply engaged in the field of electronic-grade resins and copper clad laminates for many years and has formed a complete industrial chain of 'electronic-grade resins - prepreg - copper clad laminate.' With the explosive growth driven by the rapid deployment of downstream fields such as AI computing infrastructure, the company needs to accelerate the layout of high-end product production capacity reserves to undertake growing high-end market demand, enhance its industry position, and cultivate new performance growth points," a relevant person from the securities department of Hongchang Electronic told a Securities Daily reporter.
Hongchang Electronic's investment move is not an isolated case. Wind data shows that since the second half of this year, in addition to Hongchang Electronic, at least three other listed companies in China's copper clad laminate industrial chain have successively disclosed announcements on capacity expansion and new project implementation, collectively betting on the high-end computing materials track, reflecting the trend of structural upgrading and accelerated development in the copper clad laminate industry under the wave of AI computing power.
In early August this year, the Kingboard (Jiangxi) New Materials Industrial Park project under Kingboard Laminates Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Kingboard Laminates"), a Hong Kong-listed company, officially broke ground at the Ganxiang Cooperation Industrial Park in Shangli County, Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province. The project has a total investment of 3 billion yuan and is planned to be built in two phases, with the first phase involving an investment of about 1 billion yuan.
Kingboard Laminates believes that with the vigorous development of artificial intelligence servers, supercomputing clusters, high-level intelligent driving, and new energy vehicle electronics, PCB requirements for underlying high-frequency, high-speed, high-heat-dissipation, and high-reliability copper clad laminates and upstream core materials such as electronic glass fiber cloth and copper foil have significantly increased. The project will deeply leverage the parent company's technological accumulation and high-end production capacity layout in the AI computing power and automotive electronics tracks, helping to alleviate the supply-demand gap for high-end computing substrate materials.
In late July, the second factory project of Guangdong Shengyi Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shengyi Technology"), a leading copper clad laminate enterprise, located in Dongguan Songshan Lake with a total investment of about 5.2 billion yuan, officially started construction. The project focuses on frontier fields such as high-frequency and high-speed materials for AI servers, smart automotive electronic substrate materials, and high-end packaging substrate materials. After completion, it will produce 48 million square meters of high-performance copper clad laminate and 100 million meters of commercial bonding sheet annually, and is expected to be put into operation successively in the second half of 2027.
On July 22, Jin'an Guoji Group Co., Ltd. issued an announcement stating that after friendly negotiations with the People's Government of Jinwan District, Zhuhai City, the two parties reached a cooperation intention on matters related to the company's capital increase and production expansion project in Jinwan District, Zhuhai City, and signed the "Jin'an Guoji Capital Increase and Production Expansion Project Investment Agreement." The intended investment of the project is about 2 billion yuan, building an annual output of 20 million sheets of copper clad laminate and 40 million meters of prepreg for sale.
Prismark, a globally renowned market research and consulting company in the electronics industry, predicts that the global copper clad laminate market will be about 24.2 billion US dollars in 2026, up 29.4 percent year on year; among which high-speed copper clad laminate will be about 9.5 billion US dollars, up 52.6 percent year on year.
"The prosperity of this round of the copper clad laminate industry is not a simple cyclical rebound, but a structural upgrading opportunity brought about by the iteration of AI computing power. In the past, industry growth mainly came from consumer electronics and traditional communications, but the current focus of demand has shifted to computing infrastructure such as AI servers and high-speed switches, imposing higher technical thresholds on the dielectric performance, signal loss, and heat resistance stability of copper clad laminates, and there is a supply gap for high-end materials. Domestic manufacturers need to continue investing in production line transformation, product certification, and new material research and development, and an integrated layout across the entire industrial chain will create stronger competitive advantages," Qiu Sisheng, chief economist of Shenzhen Wanzhong Management Consulting Co., Ltd., told a Securities Daily reporter.
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Source: Securities Daily
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