Panasonic plans to expand its high-frequency and high-speed CCL production capacity at its plant in China's Guangdong seeking to satisfy Chinese demand for 5G infrastructure applications, with Huawei among the Japanese vendor's major clients demanding the additional CCL output, according to industry sources.
Panasonic will invest US$75 million to boost the capacity by 50%, with the new capacity slated to become available for commercial run in the second half of 2021, the sources said.
Panasonic's capacity expansion for high-frequency, high speed CCL comes as an inevitable move given the persistent global supply shortfall for the high-end material, the sources commented, adding that its CCL shipments to Huawei will not be affected by US sanctions as the majority of relevant upstream materials and production patents are held by Asian manufacturers.
Even if shipments for Huawei's 5G base stations were disrupted, the world's overall demand for high-frequency, high-speed CCL materials will continue to grow drastically in the future, making capacity expansion a must, the sources continued.
Taiwan's three leading CCL makers are also aggressively moving to expand their capacity. Elite Material is expected to roll out new capacity in the second half of 2020 to fulfill orders in hands that have outstripped its current production capacity. Iteq's new plant in China's Jiangxi province will become operational in the third quarter, a one-quarter delay due to the coronavirus outbreak. And Taiwan Union Technology will ready new capacity in 2021 at the latest.
Article translated by Willis Ke
