PCB production in Southeast Asia, 2026: Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia compared

Southeast Asia now makes about 12.3% of the world's printed circuit boards, and nearly all of that output comes from plants built by companies based elsewhere: locally owned makers account for about 1% of world output, by the count of the Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA).^[1] Three countries carry most of it. TPCA puts Thailand's output at US$5.06 billion in 2025, Vietnam's at US$4.15 billion and Malaysia's at US$2.09 billion.^[1] This report compares the three, with shorter notes on Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and India, and sets out which parents build where, what each country makes, how much crosses its borders as bare boards, and the incentives each government offers. Thailand's own investors are profiled in Thailand's PCB build-out, and the world by region in The world PCB industry by region.

Key points

• Prismark's region "Asia outside mainland China and Japan" made US$24.1 billion of boards in 2025, 28.1% of the world, and is forecast to reach US$33.0 billion in 2027 and US$44.8 billion in 2030: average growth of 13.2% a year from 2025 to 2030 (CAGR), against 11.0% for the world.^[3]
• In Prismark's first-quarter 2026 forecast the region grows 21.0% in 2026, against 18.8% for the world, with boards of 18 layers and above up 77.2% and IC substrates up 31.8%.^[4]
• Of the companies in Prismark's 2025 top 100, the entries of 37 name a plant in Thailand, 12 in Vietnam and 6 in Malaysia. Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese makers lead in Thailand, Korean, Japanese and Chinese makers in Vietnam, and Malaysia draws the only American and European makers in the group.^[2]
• TPCA forecasts output of US$6.09 billion for Thailand in 2026, US$4.9 billion for Vietnam and US$2.41 billion for Malaysia.^[1]
• In 2025 Malaysia exported US$1.66 billion of bare boards and Thailand US$1.58 billion; Vietnam's latest reported year, 2023, shows US$1.28 billion. All three import more bare boards than they export, a sign of the assembly industry each one serves.^[5][6]

The region in Prismark's figures

Prismark, the industry research firm, does not publish Southeast Asia as a separate row. Its regional series, reproduced in the filings of listed Chinese board makers, groups Taiwan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, India and the rest of Asia outside mainland China and Japan.^[3][4] That region is the fastest-growing in the series.

Sources: Shengyi Electronics, 2026 interim report, quoting Prismark;^[3] shares are the MPBxChange calculation from the two rows.

WUS Printed Circuit reads the region's growth as the result of suppliers investing in production outside China to diversify supply chains, driven by geopolitical risk management, tariffs and trade policy, with Southeast Asia the strongest-growing part.^[4] The product mix explains much of the gap. Boards of 18 layers and above, used in AI servers and network switches, grow 77.2% in the region in 2026 and 33.1% a year to 2030, and IC substrates 31.8% in 2026.^[4] Middle-layer boards of 8 to 16 layers grow more slowly in the region in 2026 (11.4%) than in the world (19.7%), but faster over five years (15.3% a year against 10.3%).^[4]

A smaller measure shows the same direction from Taiwan. Taiwanese makers produced 4.0% of their output in Southeast Asia in the first quarter of 2026, mainly in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, while mainland China still accounted for 63.7% and Taiwan for 32.3%.^[7] Between 2022 and 2023, 29 Taiwanese and mainland Chinese board makers announced new plants in Southeast Asia, 26 of them in Thailand.^[8] The draft listing document of Dynamic Electronics describes Southeast Asia, including Thailand, as an important location for overseas PCB capacity, supported by its electronics-manufacturing ecosystem and strategic location.^[9]

Output and trade, country by country

Two published measures can be compared country by country, and they count different things. TPCA estimates production value in each country. Customs records, reported to UN Comtrade under HS heading 8534, count only bare boards that cross the border, so a board fitted into a product before it leaves is counted as that product.^[1][5]

Sources: TPCA, July 2026 (growth rates year on year);^[1] UN Comtrade, as reported by each country.^[5][6]

Three readings follow. First, output exceeds bare-board exports in each of the three producing countries, consistent with a large part of what their plants make being fitted into products assembled in the same country. Second, each of the three is also a large importer of bare boards, which marks a domestic assembly market that new local plants can supply. Third, the years differ: Vietnam's trade figures stop at 2023, two years before TPCA's latest estimate.^[1][6] The detailed Thai series, month by month, is in Thailand PCB exports: forecast for 2026 to 2030.

Who builds where

Prismark's annual list of the 100 largest board makers describes, company by company, where each is expanding. Counting the entries that name a plant in Thailand, Vietnam or Malaysia, built or being built, gives a consistent picture of which parents choose which country.^[2] Prismark itself notes that many leading companies continued to expand in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, particularly for HDI, high-layer-count boards, IC substrates and server boards.^[2]

Source: Prismark, Global Leading PCB Companies 2025, entries for the top 100; MPBxChange count. Victory Giant, Kingboard and Tripod are counted in both Thailand and Vietnam.^[2]

Thailand: server and network boards from Chinese and Taiwanese groups

Thailand is the largest base in the region by TPCA's estimate, at about 5.4% of world output, and its growth comes mainly from new capacity of Taiwanese and mainland Chinese makers for AI servers, high-speed networking and satellite communications.^[1] In Prismark's list the Thai entries include Zhen Ding, Unimicron, Gold Circuit, Compeq and WUS from Taiwan, and Shennan Circuits, Victory Giant, Kinwong, Dongshan Precision and Kingboard from mainland China, with CMK, Fujikura and Kyoden from Japan.^[2] Kingboard's Ayutthaya project is planned at 1.2 million square feet a month, its first phase of 600,000 square feet due for completion in 2027,^[10] and Victory Giant reports its first Thai building at full output in the fourth quarter of 2026 and the main structure of a second building complete, with capacity to follow in 2027.^[11] The MPBxChange register lists 39 board plants in Thailand, 33 of them operating or ramping; the full list is in the Thailand PCB tracker.

Vietnam: substrates, flexible circuits and HDI in the north

Vietnam's output grew 33.9% in 2025, and TPCA describes Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean investors moving into AI server boards, high-end HDI, ABF substrates and semiconductor packaging.^[1] Most named plants sit in the northern provinces around Hanoi, close to the country's phone and electronics assembly base.

Korean groups are the distinctive feature: four of the twelve top-100 makers with Vietnamese plants are Korean, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics and LG Innotek are both adding substrate capacity there.^[2][13][17]

Malaysia: IC substrates and advanced boards in Penang and Kedah

Malaysia brings the region's packaging and test base: TPCA notes that it holds 13% of the world semiconductor assembly and test market, and a supply chain shared with Singapore.^[1] Its board investment follows that strength. The group of companies building there is the most varied in home country, with the only American and European makers in the region's top-100 count.^[2]

Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and India

None of the four appears in TPCA's country estimates. Their trade figures show their role. Singapore exported US$1.00 billion of bare boards in 2025 and imported US$0.96 billion, the most balanced of the group; the Philippines imported US$1.27 billion and exported US$0.58 billion; India imported US$1.60 billion, more than nine times its exports, and Indonesia imported US$0.53 billion.^[5] India's government has made board production a target of its component scheme, set out with the other incentives below.

Incentives and trade terms by country

Each of the three main producers offers a tax holiday or a reduced tax rate to board and substrate plants, through different instruments.

Sources: Thailand Board of Investment, Investment Promotion Guide 2026; MIDA guideline as at 10 July 2026; Corporate Income Tax Law No. 67/2025/QH15 and Decree 182/2024/ND-CP (consolidated texts); Press Information Bureau, India.

Demand for promotion in Thailand has been large: the BOI counts 224 board and board-material projects applying for promotion from 2023 to mid-2026, worth about US$9.85 billion. These are applications, not money already invested.^[28] Malaysia's National Semiconductor Strategy carries at least RM25 billion of fiscal support,^[30] and Vietnam has listed AI, cloud computing and semiconductors as strategic technologies, with US$110 million from its national science and technology fund, by TPCA's account.^[1]

Trade terms into the United States differ slightly. The US Trade Representative's notice of July 2026 set additional tariffs of 12.5% on products of Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines and 10% on products of Malaysia, Indonesia and India, each with listed exceptions.^[26] Duty is set on the finished product where it is assembled, so the rate that matters to a board buyer is usually that of the assembly country.

What each location offers

Thailand offers scale and a cluster already formed: the largest output in the region, the largest number of top-100 makers, and an investment-promotion system that has processed board projects in volume. A buyer there finds the widest choice of high-layer-count and server boards. Vietnam offers proximity to one of the world's largest phone and electronics assembly bases, the region's fastest output growth in 2025 and the Korean and Japanese substrate and flexible-circuit makers that serve it. Malaysia offers semiconductor packaging and test at its door, substrate capacity from AT&S and Ibiden, and makers from the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea and Taiwan side by side in Penang and Kedah. The three are complements more than substitutes: several groups, among them Victory Giant, Kingboard and Tripod, run plants in two of them.^[2]

What comes next is visible in the dates the companies give. Kingboard scheduled its first Vietnamese phase to start production from the third quarter of 2026 and its first Thai phase for completion in 2027,^[10] LG Innotek's Vietnamese substrate plant in May 2027,^[17] Ibiden's Penang expansion by 2027^[23] and Samsung Electro-Mechanics' Vietnamese expansion by June 2030.^[13] TPCA's next country estimates will show how much of this reaches output. The materials behind these plants are covered in Glass cloth and laminate for Thai PCB plants.

Data and method

The report compares countries on four published measures and keeps them apart. Output by country is TPCA's estimate of July 2026.^[1] The regional series is Prismark's, as reproduced in the 2026 interim reports of Shengyi Electronics (output by region, 2025 to 2030) and WUS Printed Circuit (growth by region and product, first-quarter 2026 report).^[3][4] The count of companies comes from the entries in Prismark's list of the 100 largest board makers in 2025: a company is counted in a country when its entry names a plant there, built or being built, and the home country is Prismark's. FICT's entry, which records the sale of its Vietnamese plant to Tripod, is counted under Tripod. Trade figures are each country's own report to UN Comtrade for HS 8534, read on 14 November 2026; Vietnam had reported up to 2023.^[5][6] Named plants come from company releases, investment-promotion agencies and the trade and business press, and incentives from the agencies' own pages. Investment amounts are as each source states them and are not converted. All sources were opened on 14 November 2026.