The four leading Taiwan makers of handset-use PCBs – Compeq Manufacturing, Unimicron Technology, Wus Printed Circuit, and Unitech Printed Circuit Board – all indicated that backlogs of orders received so far will enable them to operate at full capacity until the first quarter of 2006.
Motorola has been pinpointed as the main source for the surge in demand, with some sources at the makers indicating that orders placed by Motorola for the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2006 were 50% or even 100% higher than the usual peak season orders placed by the US vendor.
In December, Compeq’s shipments of handset-use PCBs are expected to be at the same level as November, at 15 million units, pushing the company’s total shipments for all of 2005 to 130-140 million units, according to company sources.
Unitech has been producing handset-use PCBs at full capacity, totaling six million units a month, in the past few months, whereas Wus Printed Circuit expects its December shipments to be as strong as in November, topping 3.3 million units, said sources at the two makers.
Article translated by Steve Shen and edited by Eric Mah
