Industry Overview and Global Market Sales

PCBs are critical components of various electronic products, which are used in computers, communications, and various consumer electronic products and devices, and in recent years, they are widely used in automotive, industrial, medical, military, and aerospace fields, etc. Therefore, the development of this industry is driven by modern technological advances and is closely related to the demand for various products. Benefiting from the containment of COVID-19 and the development of the 5G industry, AIoT and high-speed computing applications, the product mix and yield rate of IC substrates have kept improving. While expanding the capacity in the high-end substrate with customers, such long-term relationships also bring us more stability in the future. Due to the seasonal demand changes in Substrate-like PCB, HDI and PCB in H2, 2021 Unimicron sales and profit increased significantly. As for the 2022 outlook, the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the US-China trade war, the changes in raw material price and exchange rate fluctuation, increase uncertainties in macroeconomics. The new momentum of future 5G, HPC, AIoT, Big Data, and the vigorous development of electronics-related industries will drive the continued growth of the PCB industry.

Financial Performance

Unimicron's consolidated revenue for 2021 is NT$104,563 million and its consolidated net income is NT$13,525 million. Unimicron is a professional manufacturer of PCBs. According to Prismark's production value data, Unimicron’s consolidated PCB revenue will account for approximately 4.6% of the global PCB production value in 2021.

In 2021, in response to the development of 5G technology, the Company's IC substrates made significant progress in operational performance, due to the development of 5G technology, optimization of customer product portfolio and continuous improvement in yield rate. Although the substrate-like PCBs and HDI are still affected by seasonal risks, revenue will improve with the increase in applications and the launch of new models in the peak season in the second half of the year. PCBs are key components of various electronic products, which are used in computers, communications, and various consumer electronic products and devices, and in recent years, they are widely used in automotive, industrial, medical, military, and aerospace fields, etc.

Various Development Trends of Products

Terminal electronic products are designed with multi-performance integration, high-speed computing, large screen, energy-saving and miniaturization as the mainstream application. The growth potential of market application products comes from network communication products such as servers and data centers, automotive electronic control equipment driven by electric vehicles and the intelligentization of vehicles, and new applications such as 5G and AIoT in the future. With the launch of high-speed computing products and 5G-related devices, the demand for high-end substrate manufacturing processes has increased significantly, enhancing customers' design freedom and product reliability, and enabling continuous improvement and upgrading of product signal transmission stability, speed and low-latency technologies.

The demand for FPC and RF products mainly benefited from the trend of multifunctional, light and thin handheld electronic devices. Customers’ designs largely adopt FPC unique features such as lightness, thinness, and flexural strength to connect the signal transmission between the modules and the motherboard in a limited space, to effectively reduce the internal space and weight of the device. As the complexity of terminal products increases, the packaging technology’s requirements for high frequency, high performance, and low power consumption make the chip design move toward high I/O density and fine pitch, high heat dissipation, and superior electrical characteristics, which in turn drive the related Carrier requirements of 3D system packaging, embedded components, ultra-fine lines, low power consumption, and others. Some products are affected by market competition and structural changes, and the demand for low-cost solutions cannot be ignored. However, in terms of overall technology trends, in conjunction with the next generation of process development in the semiconductor industry, the Carrier industry continues to develop relevant high-level processes and cooperate with customers to expand product applications.

Major Products' Sales by Region (Unit: NT$ thousands)

Products and Services

Unimicron mainly consists of three SBUs including Printed Circuit Board (PCB), Carrier, and IC testing systems. We are now the world’s second-largest PCB and Carrier manufacturer in terms of revenue, and the main supplier of mobile High-Density Interconnect (HDI) and Carrier boards. Unimicron’s main production bases are in Taiwan (Taoyuan and Hsinchu), South China (Shenzhen), Central China (Huangshi), and East China (Kunshan and Suzhou). Our Mainland China plants focus on mass production, whereas Taiwan facilities offer high-end products. Unimicron has business divisions and representative offices in America, Europe and Asia, and production bases in Germany and Japan to provide comprehensive services to our customers nearby.

Note: Source from Prismark PCB Feb 2022. Unit: US$ million.