PCB Laminates & Substrate Materials (CCL)

Bualuang Securities says a new angle for KCE shares is the possibility that the selling price increase cycle could extend into 2027, even though the market has already priced in the July increase and another in the fourth quarter of 2026. The key driver is not direct demand for AI circuit boards, but the cost of standard E-glass, the upstream raw material for CCL, which continues to rise after producers gradually shifted capacity to higher-grade materials for AI that offer better returns. Morgan Stanley's price index for standard E-glass fiber rose from 1.0 times in September 2025 to 3.7 times in August 2026 and 4.1 times in September 2026, while KCE's fiberglass purchase price rose from 0.49 US dollars per meter in the second quarter of 2025 to 0.74 US dollars per meter in the second quarter of 2026, an increase of 51% year on year, which is still much smaller than the rise in upstream raw material prices, leaving a risk that cost pressure will feed through further. The research team has not yet included a third price increase in 2027 in its base-case estimates, because the general-grade CCL market is not yet entirely in shortage. It keeps its assumptions for the July and fourth-quarter 2026 price increases, maintains its TRADING BUY rating with a 70 baht target price, and views any additional price increase in 2027 as upside rather than part of the base case. Core profit is expected at 1.44 billion baht in 2026, up 78% year on year, 2.07 billion baht in 2027, up 43.9%, and 2.30 billion baht in 2028, up 11.1%.

Technology component stocks led by KCE and HANA rose more than 2%. At 10:55 a.m., KCE stood at 67.25 baht, up 1.50 baht or 2.28%, with trading value of 764.19 million baht, while HANA stood at 49.50 baht, up 1.00 baht or 2.06%, with trading value of 677.56 million baht. This followed an analysis note from KGI Securities (Thailand) stating that KCE has an opportunity to expand into the printed circuit board, or PCB, business for humanoid robots, after KCE informed the Stock Exchange of Thailand on September 11, 2026, that it is in negotiations to buy and sell products with a company in the United States, which KGI believes could be Tesla, and the product could be PCBs for the Tesla Optimus robot. Tesla aims to scale up robot production from about 10,000 units initially to 1 million units per year, and eventually to 10 million units in the long term. KGI preliminarily estimates that revenue from this project could account for roughly 0.3% to 1.3% of KCE's total revenue, under the assumption of production of 1 million robots using PCBs worth 150 to 200 US dollars per unit and KCE holding an order share of about 1% to 3%. It has therefore not yet included revenue from this project in its forecasts. It also raised its core business profit forecasts for 2026-2027 by 6% to 25%, recommended "Hold" on KCE, and raised its end-2027 target price to 62 baht from 48 baht, based on a PER of 40 times. Meanwhile, HANA is expected to benefit indirectly from the upgrading of the AI server supply chain through three key businesses: thermal solutions for HBM and GPU through a partnership with Phononic, high-density PCBA testing equipment, and SiC solid-state transformers. KGI raised its profit forecasts for HANA by 6% to 11%, maintained its "Buy" recommendation, and raised its end-2027 target price to 63 baht from 45 baht, based on a PER of 40 times, expecting normal operating profit in 2027 to grow 44%.

The global AI investment wave is driving foreign capital into Thailand's infrastructure sectors, including data centers, power systems, cooling systems, PCB and storage. Data from Kasikorn Thai shows that in the first half of 2026, Thailand received investment promotion applications totaling 1.47 trillion baht, up 37% from a year earlier, while foreign capital rose 80% to 1.36 trillion baht, led by the digital and electronics industries. Among the stocks seen as direct beneficiaries is DELTA, which makes power supply and cooling systems for data centers and is ramping up commercial production of liquid cooling systems. HANA is viewed as the Thai stock market's new AI proxy, with AI-related products set to enter production lines in the second half of 2026. KCE is expected to benefit from the semiconductor upcycle and tight PCB supply, which could support selling prices and profits in the second half of 2026. SMT gains from the shift to optical connectivity, while CCET benefits from rising demand for both HDD and SSD storage as AI computing generates massive volumes of data. INSET has seen a flood of project inquiries, while WHA and AMATA stand to gain because data center businesses use roughly 12 to 16 times more electricity and water than general industrial plants, meaning industrial estate revenue does not end on the day land is sold but continues through long-term utility income. If foreign capital flows and data center investment accelerate further in 2027, the Thai stock market may see an increasingly clear picture of an AI ecosystem.

Japan's JSR, Tokyo Ohka Kogyo, Shin-Etsu Chemical and other companies announced that from October 1, 2026, new photoresist pricing for global customers will be raised by 15% overall, with high-end ArF series long-term contract quotes up 16% to 22%, HBM-specific immersion ArF up as much as 24%, spot bulk orders up 32% to 38%, KrF series standard grades up 9% to 14%, and 3D NAND thick-film KrF up 18% to 20%. Boosted by the price hike news, the electronic chemicals sector remained strong all day. Xilong Scientific surged to limit up with heavy volume shortly after the midday open, hitting a two-month high, with turnover in less than 15 minutes exceeding the entire previous day's total. Haixing shares climbed rapidly on late-session volume, while Guangxin Materials and Zhongshi Technology also showed unusual upward moves during the session. Also lifted by the price hike news, the glass fiber sector index has risen for seven consecutive days, with Honghe Technology up for seven straight days, and China Jushi, International Composites and Sinoma Science & Technology all up for five consecutive days. The latest data from Sublime China Information shows that as of September 15, the ex-factory price of 7628 electronic fabric was about 11.5 to 12.1 yuan per meter, up 10% to 20% month on month, with the year-to-date gain reaching as high as 162%.

Hongchang Electronics released its 2026 private placement plan on the evening of September 11, proposing to raise total proceeds of no more than 1.8 billion yuan for projects including high-end copper-clad laminates, prepreg technical upgrades, and advanced packaging film materials. The issuance targets no more than 35 specific investors, with an issue price no lower than 80 percent of the average stock trading price over the 20 trading days before the pricing base date, and the number of shares issued will not exceed 30 percent of the total share capital before the issuance. The issuance will not cause any change in the company's controlling shareholder or actual controller. After deducting issuance expenses, the proceeds are planned for four major projects: 1.055 billion yuan for Zhuhai Hongren's annual production capacity of 13.2 million high-end copper-clad laminates and 31.2 million meters of prepreg, 95 million yuan for Wuxi Hongren's intelligent and green upgrade project with annual production of 9.6 million meters of high-end prepreg, 320 million yuan for the advanced packaging film materials project, and an additional 330 million yuan to replenish working capital. The company said that capacity utilization rates for copper-clad laminates and prepreg at its Wuxi and Zhuhai bases have reached high levels, and market demand is growing explosively with the rapid deployment of downstream sectors such as AI computing infrastructure, making it necessary to accelerate the reserve of high-end product capacity. In the first half of 2026, the company achieved revenue of 2.186 billion yuan, up 64.83 percent year on year; net profit attributable to the parent company was 39.3915 million yuan, up 141.15 percent year on year; and non-GAAP net profit was 51.7916 million yuan, up 257.47 percent year on year. As of the close on September 11, Hongchang Electronics' stock price was 17.46 yuan per share, up 3.87 percent, with a total market value of 19.8 billion yuan. The stock has risen more than 130 percent this year, and its current forward price-to-earnings ratio of 251 times has raised concerns among some investors about the private placement at a high level.

Three major copper-clad laminate producers have raised prices in succession, driving PCB-related stocks to strengthen against the market trend. At the end of August, Kingboard Laminates issued its seventh price increase letter this year, raising FR-4 copper-clad laminate prices by 10 percent across the board, adjusting prepreg prices by specification, and raising thin fabric prices by up to 20 percent. Panasonic then announced it would raise copper-clad laminate prices from September 1, with some products up by as much as 30 percent, and Nan Ya Plastics followed with increases of 20 to 25 percent. Boosted by this, Goldenmax International surged to its daily limit up, closing the morning session at 76.45 yuan, with more than 180,000 lots locked on the limit-up board, turnover exceeding 3.7 billion yuan, and a total market value of 55.6 billion yuan. Yihao New Materials rose by the 20 percent daily limit, GD-Goworld posted a strong run of two limit-up moves in four sessions, and Sihui Fushi, Sdic, and Wanyuan Tong rose more than 10 percent, while China Jushi and Founder Technology also advanced. According to a China Securities Journal report on September 9, several electronic fabric companies and downstream copper-clad laminate producers said the market has shown relatively good acceptance of the new round of price increases, that electronic fabric supply is somewhat tight, and that leading companies are actively expanding capacity, with new projects expected to come on stream this year and next, at which point price trends will need further market confirmation.

Londian Wason New Energy Technology Group, a major copper foil manufacturer, has officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "FOIL," raising approximately US$108.43 million through the issuance of 4,928,571 American Depositary Shares at US$22.00 each, including the over-allotment option. The company, a key supplier to LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI, SK On, and Panasonic, is now focusing on high-end electronic copper foils for AI infrastructure, which offer higher margins due to technical barriers. Its RTF 1-3 series is in mass production, HVLP 1-3 series has been certified by multiple CCL manufacturers, and HVLP 4 and above are largely through customer validation. Having supplied PCB-grade copper foil to Panasonic for about 12 years, Londian Wason is indirectly part of NVIDIA's computing supply chain. The company plans to shift its product mix from roughly 85:15 lithium-ion battery to electronic circuit copper foil toward a target of 75:25, aiming to leverage its battery business to support the growth of high-end electronic foils.

Today, the MSCI China Index adjustment takes effect after market close, with 33 new constituents added, including 31 A-shares such as Tongguan Copper Foil, Fenghua Advanced Technology, Huafeng Test & Control, Dingtai High-Tech, and KINGSEMI. Meanwhile, Inno Laser released its half-year report, with first-half operating revenue of 259 million yuan, up 19.02% year on year, and net profit attributable to the parent of 35.1507 million yuan, up 314.55% year on year. In addition, ChangXin Memory Technologies announced that its self-developed LPDDR6 memory has entered mass production and is first featured in the Xiaomi 18 Fold flagship foldable phone, marking the world's first commercial deployment of LPDDR6 products and breaking the monopoly of overseas manufacturers. China State Shipbuilding Corporation's wholly owned subsidiary Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, together with China Shipbuilding Trading, signed a contract with COSCO Shipping Assets for the construction of 12 21,700-TEU LNG dual-fuel container ships, with a total value of 2.688 billion US dollars, with delivery expected between 2028 and 2030. Shengyi Electronics' wholly owned subsidiary Ji'an Shengyi Electronics plans to invest 2.257 billion yuan to build a high-speed interconnect circuit board project, with a designed capacity of 445,900 square meters per year.

On August 28, A-share CPO concept stocks opened lower and moved higher. Star-Net Ruijie, Hefei Metalforming Intelligent Manufacturing, and Qingshan Paper hit limit up, while Shenzhen Microgate Technology, Shengyi Electronics, Optowide Technologies, and Advanced Fiber Resources followed higher. On the news front, the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission released the 2026 application guidelines for the new-generation optical communications technology project under the Intelligent Computing Optical Network program. Approved projects will receive 40 percent of fiscal funding at launch, another 40 percent after completing milestone targets, and the final 20 percent after meeting all assessment indicators. Overseas, Nvidia reported second-quarter results for fiscal 2027, with revenue of 96.2 billion dollars, up 106 percent year on year, and data center revenue of 89 billion dollars. It also guided to a midpoint of 108 billion dollars in revenue for the third fiscal quarter and raised its fiscal 2028 revenue growth forecast to 70 percent. After the earnings release, Nvidia shares jumped 8.7 percent, giving it a market value of 5.49 trillion dollars, and more than ten investment banks including Morgan Stanley and Citigroup raised their price targets. On the technology side, Nvidia's Spectrum-X Ethernet photonic switching platform has entered full mass production, marking CPO's move into large-scale manufacturing. LightCounting forecasts that global Ethernet optical module sales will grow 73 percent year on year in 2026. Brokerage analysts believe the industry's prosperity has medium- to long-term support, with the four major overseas cloud providers guiding to capital expenditure of 720 billion to 745 billion dollars in 2026.

Nanya New Material Technology released its 2026 interim report, showing first-half net profit attributable to the parent of 461 million yuan, up 428.8% year on year. Operating revenue was 4.224 billion yuan, up 83.2% year on year. Net profit attributable to the parent after deducting non-recurring items was 453 million yuan, up 457.8% year on year. Net operating cash flow was negative 23.64 million yuan. Earnings per share were 2.02 yuan. In the second quarter, operating revenue was 2.39 billion yuan, up 76.8% year on year, and net profit attributable to the parent was 311 million yuan, up 370.6% year on year. As of the end of the second quarter, total assets were 7.926 billion yuan, up 31.9% from the end of the previous year, and net assets attributable to the parent were 3.274 billion yuan, up 13.8% from the end of the previous year. The company said the earnings growth was mainly driven by the impact of AI computing power and 5G application promotion, with rising demand in the copper-clad laminate industry, significant growth in product sales volume, and continued upward price trends. Management stressed that it will continue to increase research and development investment and promote technological innovation to maintain competitive advantages.

Tongguan Copper Foil disclosed its 2026 semi-annual report on August 26. During the reporting period, it achieved revenue of 4.021 billion yuan, up 34.16% year on year; net profit attributable to the parent company was 215 million yuan, up 514.75% year on year; and net profit attributable to the parent company after deducting non-recurring items was 207 million yuan, up 754.21% year on year. The company plans to distribute a cash dividend of 0.6 yuan per 10 shares, including tax, totaling approximately 49.56 million yuan in cash dividends. The company said the profit growth was mainly due to the recovery of the copper foil industry, with high-end PCB copper foil in short supply. The company optimized its product structure, and the proportion of high-value-added products such as high-frequency and high-speed copper foil increased, with high-frequency and high-speed copper foil output already exceeding 50% of total PCB copper foil output. The industry as a whole has rebounded, and peers such as Jiayuan Technology, Nuode New Materials, Defu Technology, Zhongyi Technology, and Shengyi Technology all posted substantial first-half profit growth. A research report from Soochow Securities estimates that in 2026, the global market demand for high-end copper foil dedicated to AI servers will reach 24,000 tonnes, up 260% year on year; Goldman Sachs expects the global AI server PCB market to reach 84 billion US dollars by 2028.

In the afternoon, Dongcai Technology opened and hit the daily limit-up in just 16 seconds, then the limit was broken. As of press time, the stock was sealed at limit-up again, with 139,000 lots of buy orders queued at the limit-up price. Earlier, on the evening of August 20, Dongcai Technology disclosed its 2026 semi-annual report. Benefiting from high-quality development in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence and computing power upgrades, as well as improving demand in consumer electronics terminals, the company's high-value-added products such as high-speed electronic resins and mid-to-high-end optical polyester base films showed clear competitive advantages. Market expansion proceeded smoothly, allowing the company to rapidly capture incremental market share, with brand competitiveness and overall profitability improving significantly. During the reporting period, the company achieved operating revenue of 3.095 billion yuan, up 27.29% year on year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 312 million yuan, an increase of 121.3914 million yuan, or 63.78% year on year. Net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was 224 million yuan, up 40.86% year on year. In addition, Zhang Jianping disappeared from Dongcai Technology's list of top ten tradable shareholders in the second quarter. As of the end of the first quarter, Zhang Jianping held 25.8637 million shares of the company, with a total market value of 759 million yuan.

China Jushi released its 2026 semi-annual report, achieving net profit attributable to the parent of 2.933 billion yuan in the first half, up 73.87 percent year on year. Operating revenue for the same period was 11.159 billion yuan, up 22.50 percent, of which fiberglass and products contributed 10.86 billion yuan. Electronic fabric sales volume reached 544 million meters, with AI servers driving a sharp rise in electronic fabric demand. The company plans to distribute cash dividends totaling about 1.32 billion yuan including tax to all shareholders, equivalent to about 0.33 yuan per share, with the dividend amount accounting for about 45 percent of net profit attributable to the parent for the period. China Jushi's share price has risen more than 220 percent cumulatively over the past year. After hitting a stage high of 77.2 yuan on June 26, it pulled back sharply along with semiconductor and AI sector adjustments, and saw a modest recovery rebound in August.

A recent in-depth supply chain survey by Cailian Press found that surging AI server demand combined with tight industry capacity is intensifying the supply crunch for upstream PCB base materials, electronic yarn and electronic fabric. High-end electronic yarn remains extremely hard to source, and some manufacturers are shifting capacity toward high-margin categories such as ultra-thin fabric, extremely thin fabric, and specialty fabric, causing spot shortages and price increases even for ordinary electronic fabric. In the first half of this year, the electronic fabric industry completed five rounds of price increases. Thick fabric prices have now doubled from the end of last year. Data from Zhuochuang Information show that in August, the mainstream market average price of domestic G75 electronic yarn rose to 19,700 to 20,000 yuan per tonne, up nearly 53 percent from the end of May. The mainstream transaction price of traditional 7628 electronic fabric rose to 10 to 10.2 yuan per metre, a month-on-month increase of 17 to 18 percent. Cumulative gains this year for thin and ultra-thin fabrics such as 2116 and 1080 have exceeded 140 percent. Liu Yang, an analyst at Zhuochuang Information, said that under the siphon effect of AI demand, leading companies are proactively cutting conventional 7628 electronic fabric capacity and shifting to thin fabric and low-dielectric high-frequency specialty fabric, creating a situation where the supply-demand gap for conventional fabric is widening while high-end specialty fabric is severely out of stock. The industry is currently in a state of almost zero inventory. In response, listed companies including China Jushi, Sinoma Science and Technology, CPIC, Jujie Microfiber, and Goldenmax International Technology are accelerating capacity deployment. Quartz fiber electronic fabric, known as Q fabric, which suits high-frequency and high-speed application scenarios, is the main deployment direction. Among them, Feilihua is expected to achieve sales revenue of 150 million yuan from quartz electronic fabric in the first half of this year, and Honghe Technology's Q fabric has passed downstream customer certification and already has small-volume sales. Many interviewees believe that as the AI computing infrastructure wave continues, short-term supply of PCB upstream base materials such as electronic yarn and electronic fabric will remain tight. Because new capacity takes a long time to come online, combined with cost support and downstream demand resonance, product prices are expected to rise further.

Asia Plus Securities has upgraded the Thai electronics sector to overweight from market weight, citing Thailand's electronics industry as part of the AI and data centre supply chain, which is expected to remain a megatrend over the next two to three years. In the near term, profits at DELTA and KCE, the key earnings drivers in the first half, are expected to keep growing in the third quarter of 2026. The electronics sector's earnings trend in the second half of this year should improve from the first half, because the third quarter is typically the peak sales period for electronic components as customers rush to order and take delivery before the long year-end holidays. DELTA's raw material shortage has gradually eased since July 2026, while KCE continues to benefit from expected higher margins amid a global shortage of laminate used in PCB production, as KCE has a subsidiary that produces laminate in-house. Asia Plus Research has selected DELTA as its top pick, expecting the company to have passed its low point for the year in the second quarter of 2026, with raw material issues easing and a backlog of advance orders still in place. The near-term picture therefore points to the strongest quarter-on-quarter earnings growth in the third quarter of 2026.

Shengyi Technology released its 2026 interim report, with net profit attributable to the parent company of 3.287 billion yuan, an increase of 1.86 billion yuan compared with the same period last year, up 130.42% year on year, achieving growth for three consecutive years. The company's total operating revenue was 19.026 billion yuan, up 50.05% year on year; net cash inflow from operating activities was 2.983 billion yuan, up 53.44% year on year. The latest gross margin was 30.69%, an increase of 4.84 percentage points from the same period last year; the latest return on equity was 17.77%, an increase of 8.37 percentage points from the same period last year. Diluted earnings per share were 1.36 yuan, up 130.51% year on year.

The disclosure of second-quarter reports for actively managed equity funds has concluded, and the repositioning path shows a significant increase in holdings in the electronics sector, with machinery equipment positions also rising. Fang Ji, an analyst at Donghai Securities, said that capital expenditure by the world's nine major cloud service providers is expected to exceed 886.7 billion US dollars in 2026, a year-on-year surge of 90 percent, and the annual growth rate of global AI server shipments has been revised upward to nearly 31 percent, suggesting the electronics industry's high prosperity is likely to continue. On machinery equipment, analyst Shang Jian suggested focusing on two main themes: PCB equipment and humanoid robots. The global market for PCB-specific equipment is expected to grow to 11.388 billion US dollars by 2029, and the global humanoid robot market is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan by 2028. The direction of institutional position increases reflects their forward-looking judgment on prosperity in the second half of the year, but analysts caution investors against blindly chasing rallies, and suggest paying attention to sub-sectors with improving prosperity and reasonable valuations on dips.

Shengyi Electronics released its 2026 half-year report, achieving operating revenue of 5.784 billion yuan, up 53.46% year on year. Net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 1.111 billion yuan, up 109.36% year on year. Second-quarter net profit was 666 million yuan, first-quarter net profit was 445 million yuan, and second-quarter net profit rose 49% quarter on quarter.

Shengyi Electronics released its 2026 semi-annual report, achieving operating revenue of 5.784 billion yuan, up 53.46% year on year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 1.111 billion yuan, up 109.36% year on year. Swancor Advanced Materials posted a net loss of 167 million yuan in the same period, swinging to a loss year on year. Nvidia announced that its Spectrum-X Ethernet silicon photonics switches have entered full mass production, achieving a fourfold reduction in the number of lasers, a fivefold reduction in power consumption, and a tenfold improvement in mean time between failures. Guangdong Province's first token economy special financial product, Token Loan, was launched in Haizhu, Guangzhou, and Bank of China Guangzhou Branch has already extended preliminary credit funds of 28 million yuan.

KCE Electronics Public Company Limited, or KCE, expects its performance in the third quarter of 2026 to continue improving, supported mainly by the gradual increase in average selling prices to customers by 10–12% to offset higher raw material costs. Most of these increases take effect from February 2026 onward and will be fully reflected in the third quarter of 2026. In the second quarter of 2026, the company posted net profit of 275.9 million baht, up 17.78% from the previous quarter and 51.49% from a year earlier, equal to earnings per share of 0.23 baht. Sales revenue was 3.5745 billion baht, up 15.04% from the previous quarter and 8.80% from a year earlier. Gross margin rose to 18.9% from 17.7% in the first quarter of 2026 and 18.1% in the second quarter of 2025, helped by sales of special and HDI printed circuit boards, which grew 5.44% from the previous quarter and 19.91% from a year earlier. However, higher copper and copper foil costs raised expenses by 1.83% of sales from the previous quarter and 4.05% from a year earlier, while a shortage of glass fiber pushed external laminate prices up 15–30%, and capacity utilization fell to 65% because of long holidays and a power outage. The company has set a 2026 investment budget of 885 million baht, comprising 495 million baht for the Lat Krabang plant, 322 million baht for the Hi-Tech Ayutthaya plant, and 68 million baht for Thai Laminate Manufacturer Company Limited. In the first half of the year, 293 million baht has already been spent.

Ajinomoto Co Inc achieved record first-quarter sales, business profit, and profit attributable to owners, with business profit surging 127% year-over-year, and raised its full-year forecast. The functional materials segment, particularly ABF for AI servers and networks, saw robust demand and significant sales and profit increases, driving the upward revision. The company is taking proactive measures to absorb an estimated JPY25 billion cost impact from Middle East tensions through price adjustments and cost reduction initiatives. The CDMO business also posted increased sales and profit, led by small molecules and gene therapy, with a confident outlook for significant full-year profit growth. However, the frozen food segment experienced a JPY600 million profit decrease due to higher costs and a delayed recovery from product recalls in North America.

Goldman Sachs sharply raised its market size forecasts for AI server-related PCBs and CCLs in its latest industry report. Boosted by the news, the A-share PCB sector surged, with Baoding Technology hitting its up limit for the fifth time in six trading days. Goldman Sachs now expects the global AI server PCB market to reach 37.5 billion US dollars in 2027, up 38 percent from its previous forecast, and to further grow to 84 billion US dollars in 2028. The CCL market is projected to reach 22.1 billion US dollars in 2027, up 18 percent, and could rise to 48 billion US dollars in 2028. This implies compound annual growth rates of 148 percent and 161 percent for the AI server PCB and CCL markets respectively from 2026 to 2028. Goldman Sachs noted that this growth is driven not only by higher server shipments, but also by factors such as increased PCB layer counts, greater penetration of high-end HDI, upgrades in CCL materials, and higher PCB usage within server racks.

Ajinomoto on the 6th revised upward its consolidated net profit forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2027, from the previous 120 billion yen to 123.5 billion yen, a decline of 8.29 percent from the prior year. The move reflects robust sales of electronic materials for high-performance substrates used in artificial intelligence, servers, and network equipment. The forecast fell short of the average estimate of 134.5 billion yen from 15 analysts polled by IBES. For the April-to-June quarter, the first quarter of the current fiscal year, consolidated net profit rose 13.1 percent year-on-year to 36.4 billion yen, a record high for the quarter. In addition to strong sales of electronic materials, seasonings and foods were firm within the overall food business, while the recovery in frozen foods was delayed by the impact of a voluntary recall.

The A-share computing hardware sector heated up across the board on the afternoon of August 5, with heavyweight Shengyi Technology, valued at 230 billion yuan, surging rapidly toward a 20 percent limit-up. Multiple stocks including TIANLU Technology, ZHI DONG LI, Foxconn Industrial Internet, Universal Scientific Industrial, Star-Net Ruijie, and Hui Lv Ecology hit limit-up. This round of gains was strongly fueled by positive overseas industry catalysts. AMD CEO Lisa Su delivered above-expectation guidance during the earnings call, forecasting server revenue to grow over 80 percent year on year in the second half of 2026, data center sales to double by 2027, and the launch of rack-scale products equipped with MI500 GPUs in 2027. Huatai Securities noted that North American cloud providers have been intensively raising AI capital expenditure guidance. Google raised its 2026 capex guidance to between 195 billion and 205 billion US dollars, Amazon revised it up to 220 billion dollars, and Meta raised the lower end to 130 billion dollars, pointing to attractive investment opportunities along the AI computing chain. BOC International believes that the concentrated iteration of domestic large models is continuously strengthening the logic for homegrown computing power, with the beneficiary chain expanding from GPUs to CPUs, AI servers, storage, switches, optical modules, PCBs, liquid cooling, data centers, and power infrastructure. China Securities pointed out that the AI computing chain offers clear earnings elasticity. Inspur Electronics expects its attributable net profit for the first half of 2026 to grow between 226 percent and 288 percent year on year, while Unisplendour expects growth between 83.50 percent and 122.89 percent. Soochow Securities further noted that 2026 will see an explosion in global AI large models and agent applications, with tech giants continuing to ramp up AI capex. Starting from the first quarter of 2026, the global semiconductor and hardware supply chain will enter a structural wave of price increases.

On August 4, PCB concept stocks rebounded in choppy trading, with Zhongjing Electronics and Xintong Electronics hitting their daily limit up in a straight line. A Citigroup research report shows that electronic glass fabric prices posted their largest single-month increase of the year in August, with the average price of the 1080, 2116, and 7628 series rising 17% to 18%, and cumulative gains of 118% to 165% for the year. GF Securities estimates that under a neutral scenario in 2026, the supply gap for ordinary electronic glass fabric will be approximately 113 million meters, and current industry-wide inventory is at historically extremely low levels. In terms of news, AI power supplies are squeezing traditional supply, with costs being passed on to copper-clad laminates. Kingboard's August spot price for copper-clad laminates including tax may be raised by another 10% to 15%.

Haohua Chemical Technology has disclosed production capacities and business updates for multiple products via the Hudongyi platform. The company's hexafluorobutadiene capacity stands at 1,000 tonnes per year, with the product suitable for advanced manufacturing processes. Tungsten hexafluoride capacity is 600 tonnes per year, achieving 6N purity and primarily supplied to integrated circuit enterprises. PTFE capacity is 51,000 tonnes per year, and the company has established long-term stable partnerships with mainstream copper-clad laminate manufacturers. In the refrigerant business, the company is one of the earliest in China to engage in the research, development, and industrialization of ODS substitutes. Its subsidiary, Sinochem Lantian, has a total refrigerant scale of nearly 200,000 tonnes.

O'Keeffe Stevens Advisory highlighted Corning Incorporated in its Q2 2026 investor letter, noting the company signed major AI-related supply agreements. Corning announced a multiyear partnership with Nvidia that includes a tenfold increase in U.S. optical connectivity manufacturing capacity and a more than 50% expansion in U.S. fiber production, supported by three new plants in North Carolina and Texas. Nvidia paid $500 million for rights to Corning shares, including warrants on up to 15 million shares at a $180 exercise price, potentially bringing its total equity investment to $3.2 billion. In June, Amazon signed a multibillion-dollar, multiyear deal for Corning to supply optical fiber, cable, and connectivity for its expanding U.S. data centers, following a supply agreement of up to $6 billion that Meta signed in January. The advisory firm trimmed its Corning position after the stock appreciated over 20% in the quarter, while noting that the shift from copper to fiber in data centers could make Corning's fiber a future bottleneck.

Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund highlighted Corning Incorporated in its second-quarter 2026 investor letter, citing continued strong performance driven by increasing demand for advanced fiber and optical connections in AI chip technology. The fund believes Corning should see market growth across several key products for the next three to five years. Corning shares gained 162.77% over the past 52 weeks, closing at $146.65 on July 24, 2026, with a market capitalization of $126.21 billion. The stock experienced a one-month return of negative 43.06% amid a volatile quarter that saw a sharp rally in AI-related stocks and a 15.2% gain for the S&P 500.

Rongda Photosensitive has released its 2026 private placement plan for specific investors, aiming to raise total proceeds of no more than 591 million yuan. Of this, 216 million yuan will be used for the construction of a Guangzhou production base. Once completed, the project will have an annual output of 6,000 tons of high-end PCB photosensitive solder resist ink and 300 tons of inkjet ink, covering high-precision fields such as AI servers and IC substrates. Another 215 million yuan will be invested in building a processing base in Thailand, establishing a production line with an annual capacity of 6,000 tons of PCB ink and supporting dry film slitting capacity, to serve Southeast Asian PCB customers venturing overseas. The remaining 160 million yuan will fully supplement working capital. The company's net profit attributable to shareholders for 2023 to 2025 was 85.49 million yuan, 122 million yuan, and 118 million yuan respectively, with annual cash dividend payout ratios exceeding 21 percent. The net proceeds from two previous fundraising rounds totaled 627 million yuan. The 2022 private placement net proceeds of 390 million yuan have been fully invested. As of the end of June 2026, 170 million yuan of the 237 million yuan net proceeds from the 2024 simplified procedure private placement had been used, with the remaining funds to be continuously invested in dry film photoresist production lines and semiconductor photoresist research and development projects, expected to be fully utilized by 2027.

Pengding Holdings announced plans to invest 10 billion yuan in a new Shenzhen Third Park, and to build an intelligent manufacturing base for high-end AI-related substrates and flexible circuit boards. The project is scheduled to start in July 2026 and be completed and put into production by 2033.

Han's Laser disclosed its 2026 semi-annual performance flash report. During the period, net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company reached 1.286 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 163.47%. The company achieved operating revenue of 13.413 billion yuan, up 76.19% year-on-year. The performance growth was mainly driven by significant year-on-year increases in orders and revenue across multiple business segments, including PCB-specific equipment, consumer electronics equipment, lithium battery and semiconductor equipment.

Jiangnan New Materials disclosed its earnings forecast, expecting net profit attributable to the parent company for the first half of 2026 to be between 160 million and 175 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 51.53% to 65.74%. Deducted non-recurring net profit is expected to be between 145 million and 160 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 55.63% to 71.78%. The company stated that the profit growth is mainly driven by the booming AI computing power industry, which has boosted demand in areas such as high-end PCBs and server liquid cooling, leading to a rapid increase in market demand for its main products, along with continuous optimization and upgrading of its product mix.

The CSI Communication Services Index surged over 3% in afternoon trading, as the iteration of AI computing architecture opens up incremental space for the PCB industry. As of 1:42 PM on July 9, 2026, the CSI Communication Services Index was up strongly by 3.22%. The Communication ETF Southern saw intraday turnover of 5.34%, with a trading volume of 20.6021 million yuan. Morgan Stanley noted that in the first half of this year, China's exports of AI-related infrastructure grew 90% year-on-year, reaching over 130 billion US dollars. Institutional research reports point out that computing power demand is becoming the most important structural increment for the PCB industry. The shift of AI server architecture to GPU and ASIC clusters comprehensively raises the technical requirements for PCBs in terms of usage volume, layer count, and materials, driving rapid growth in demand for high-multilayer boards and high-end HDI. PCB equipment and supporting consumables are also seeing development opportunities. The Communication ETF Southern closely tracks the CSI Communication Services Index, which is compiled from the constituents of the CSI 800 Index based on industry classification.

Baoding Technology disclosed its 2026 half-year earnings forecast, projecting net profit attributable to the parent company of 125 million to 145 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 468.71% to 559.71%. Even the lower end of the range already exceeds last year's full-year level. Boosted by the news, Baoding Technology hit its daily limit one minute after the market opened, triggering a rally in PCB-related stocks including MLS, Shandong Fiberglass, and Zhongjing Electronics, which also hit their daily limits, while Tianshan Electronics, Mankun Technology, and Nanya New Material followed with gains. The company's profit growth mainly came from its subsidiary Jinbao Electronics, whose copper-clad laminate and electronic copper foil business turned from loss to profit, as well as higher volumes and prices for finished gold products from Hexi Gold Mine. At the industry level, AI computing demand is driving PCB upgrades toward high-layer-count, high-density, and high-speed designs, accelerating capacity expansion for high-end, high-frequency, high-speed PCBs.

Han's Laser has released its interim results forecast, expecting net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company for the first half of the year to be between 1.25 billion yuan and 1.35 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 156.07% to 176.55%. Net profit after deducting non-recurring items is expected to be between 1.35 billion yuan and 1.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 417.12% to 455.42%. The profit growth is mainly driven by the large-scale deployment of computing infrastructure such as AI servers and high-speed network switches. The revenue contribution from AIPCB-related solutions of its subsidiary Han's CNC has increased significantly, with half-year operating revenue for 2026 growing by more than 100% year-on-year. Orders for consumer electronics equipment continued to grow, with half-year operating revenue up about 180% year-on-year. Lithium battery equipment benefited from capacity expansion by major customers, with half-year operating revenue up about 45% year-on-year. Semiconductor and quasi-semiconductor equipment, driven by repeat orders from AMOLED production lines and a recovery in packaging demand, saw half-year operating revenue rise about 40% year-on-year. The low-power segment of general industrial laser processing equipment achieved rapid growth in areas such as specialty welding, with half-year operating revenue up about 30% year-on-year. The decline in the share price of Lingge Technology held by the company resulted in a negative change in fair value of financial assets of 171 million yuan, a decrease of about 421 million yuan compared with the same period last year. This portion of profit or loss is non-recurring and does not have a material impact on net profit after deducting non-recurring items.

MLS's wholly owned subsidiary Xinyu MLS Electronics announced that it will raise prices across all PCB products by 10% to 15% effective July 7, 2026. This marks the company's third PCB price increase in a short period, following a 20% hike on June 12 and another 10% on June 17. The company cited sustained sharp cost increases for copper clad laminates driven by upstream raw material glass cloth, along with tight supply, and warned that板材 will become even scarcer in the third and fourth quarters. The wave of price hikes across the PCB supply chain continues to spread. Major copper clad laminate maker Kingboard Laminates issued its sixth price increase notice of the year, raising prices for FR-4 products by 15%, CEM-1 and 22F by 10%, and PP by 15% for orders placed from that day onward, with copper foil processing fees also adjusted upward. Further upstream, the electronic glass cloth segment is raising prices in tandem. Taiwan-based electronic glass cloth maker Fulltech Fiber Glass will implement a uniform 30% price increase for standard E-glass electronic cloth and a 15% increase for low-dielectric-constant electronic cloth starting July 1, 2026. Industry participants believe that downstream demand from AI servers and other applications continues to grow, while upstream capacity expansion cycles are long. Global delivery lead times for core equipment from Toyota Industries loom have reached 18 to 24 months, with orders booked out to 2028 and beyond. The supply-demand gap is expected to persist, and the electronic glass cloth price hike trend may extend through the end of the year.

The global PTFE-based copper clad laminates market is projected to grow from $0.45 billion in 2026 to over $0.65 billion by 2031, at a compound annual growth rate of 8.0%. Flexible PTFE-based CCL is expected to be the fastest-growing type, driven by demand for lightweight, compact, high-frequency components in wearables, aerospace, and automotive radars. Ultra-low loss laminates are anticipated to lead performance class growth, catering to 5G networks, AI servers, and defense electronics. Ceramic-filled PTFE remains the dominant reinforcement material due to its superior dielectric and thermal stability. Asia Pacific is the leading region, fueled by 5G investments and electronics manufacturing in China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.