Thailand's PCB boom: who is building, where, and why

Between 2023 and 2025, Thailand's Board of Investment (BOI) received 222 applications for projects making printed circuit boards (PCBs) or PCB raw materials, with a combined value of THB 320,078 million, mostly from investors in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan ^[1]. An earlier BOI count, running to November 2025, gave 214 projects worth more than THB 300 billion and made clear that the total covers PCB assembly (PCBA) and key raw materials as well as bare-board fabrication ^[2]. The BOI now describes Thailand as the largest PCB producer in ASEAN and the fifth largest in the world ^[1]. We could not check that ranking against independent production statistics.

Application counts are not plant counts. One plant can file several projects as it adds phases, some projects are assembly lines or materials plants, and some approved projects are never built. Nikkei Asia counted nearly 60 PCB makers from China and Taiwan setting up in Thailand in less than three years ^[3]. The MPBxChange register, which tracks bare-board fabrication plants only, currently lists 39 researched plants. Of the 39 that publish a founding year, 28 were registered in Thailand in 2022 or later. 33 plants are reported operating or ramping, and 6 are still under construction or only announced.

Who is building

In the register, mainland Chinese parents form the largest group and Taiwanese parents the second. Japanese, Hong Kong and Thai owners make up the rest, mostly with plants that predate the current wave. Nikkei notes that the newcomers include a majority of the world's 30 largest PCB makers ^[3].

Taiwanese groups

Zhen Ding Tech (ZDT), which The Nation describes as the world's largest PCB maker, is building in Prachin Buri through Peng Shen Technology, a joint venture with Thailand's Saha Group ^[2][4]. By January 2026 the BOI had approved four Peng Shen projects worth more than THB 65 billion in total, for multilayer, flexible, substrate-like (SLP) and high-density interconnect (HDI) boards. The Thai operation is ZDT's first manufacturing base outside China and Taiwan ^[2].

Gold Circuit Electronics (GCE), which specialises in high-layer-count boards for servers and PCs, announced its Thai plant in May 2023 ^[5], and by 2025 Nikkei's sources said the first plant was running at full capacity ^[3]. Compeq opened a multilayer plant in Asia Industrial Estate, Samut Prakan, in December 2024, an investment of more than THB 10.4 billion ^[7]. Unitech PCB, an HDI maker, signed for 56 rai in S Industrial Estate Angthong in 2024 ^[8]. Unimicron's chairman told Nikkei that the company had secured land for up to five plants in Thailand if demand proves strong ^[3].

Two automotive specialists are expanding as well. Dynamic Electronics, which DigiTimes described in 2023 as a Taiwan-based automotive PCB maker, accelerated construction of its Thai plant that year ^[9]. In January 2026 Yicai, describing the company as Chinese, reported that it had more than doubled the Thai plant's budget to CNY 3.3 billion ^[16]. Chin Poon, also focused on automotive boards, planned a further THB 1 billion for its existing Thai site ^[10].

Mainland Chinese groups

WUS Printed Circuit announced a USD 280 million plant in an Ayutthaya industrial park in June 2022, one of the earliest announcements of this wave ^[11]. Shennan Circuits approved up to RMB 1.27 billion for a site in Rojana Industrial Park, Ayutthaya, in November 2023 ^[12], and Kinwong chose Prachin Buri the same year ^[13]. Victory Giant Technology has been moving equipment into a new plant in Ayutthaya ^[3]. First Quality Circuit, a subsidiary of Sihui Fuji, runs a plant in the Amata industrial park in Rayong ^[14], and Taihua Electronics Technology, another Chinese maker, broke ground in 304 Industrial Park in December 2024 ^[15]. Multi-Fineline Electronics applied in 2024 to invest THB 13.9 billion in multilayer and flexible boards ^[17].

Japanese and Thai incumbents

Japanese makers predate this wave, and some are expanding for the car market. In 2022 CMK decided to build a new factory of about 102,000 square metres on the premises of its main Thai plant in 304 Industrial Park, with about JPY 25 billion for a first phase, to double its HDI capacity as vehicles electrify ^[18]. On the Thai side, KCE Electronics, which Nikkei calls the country's biggest local PCB maker ^[3], runs plants in Bangkok and Ayutthaya and owns a subsidiary that makes copper clad laminate and prepreg ^[19]. SVI Public Company Limited formed a joint venture with China Circuit Technology, holding 75 percent, for a THB 3,889 million multilayer and HDI plant in Bangkadi Industrial Park, Pathum Thani ^[20].

Where the plants are

Two clusters dominate. The first runs east of Bangkok into Prachin Buri and Chachoengsao. 304 Industrial Park, which has sites in both provinces, hosts CMK and Taihua ^[18][15], and Peng Shen, GCE and Kinwong are also in Prachin Buri ^[2][6][13]. The second is Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok, where Rojana Industrial Park holds Shennan's plant ^[12] and KCE's site for a planned factory of 1 million square feet a month ^[19]. Rayong, in the Eastern Economic Corridor, adds First Quality Circuit, a site that I-Connect007 notes is next to Laem Chabang deep-sea port ^[14]. Smaller groups sit around Bangkok: Compeq in Samut Prakan ^[7], the SVI joint venture in Pathum Thani ^[20] and Unitech in Ang Thong ^[8].

For buyers, almost all new capacity sits close to Bangkok and the eastern seaboard ports, so plant visits and export logistics are simpler than the province count suggests.

What they make

The product mix follows demand. The largest projects target servers and networking: HDI, high-layer-count and substrate-like boards. ZDT lists smartphones and AI servers as end uses ^[2], GCE specialises in high-layer-count server boards ^[5], and Dynamic's enlarged Thai plant is aimed at routers, AI servers, switches and AI accelerator cards ^[16]. A manager at Ta Liang Technology told Nikkei that suppliers in the AI supply chain are leading the formation of the Thai industry ^[3].

Automotive boards are the second theme. CMK's expansion is aimed at electrified vehicles ^[18], and Taihua makes boards of 2 to 20 layers for automotive, new energy, power supply, computer and telecom customers ^[15]. Flexible circuits are a smaller but growing strand: Multi-Fineline Electronics' 2024 application and Compeq's second phase, approved in 2026, are both flexible-board projects ^[17][1].

Announced products are not proven capability. Many of these plants are still qualifying with customers, so buyers should ask what the Thai plant itself has shipped, not what its group makes elsewhere.

Why Thailand

Customers want supply outside China

Research on supply chain relocation is consistent with what the companies say, although none of these studies looks at PCBs in Thailand. Alfaro and Chor find that direct US sourcing from China has fallen, with Vietnam and Mexico gaining share ^[21]. Freund, Mattoo, Mulabdic and Ruta find that China's share of US imports fell from 22 to 16 percent between 2017 and 2022, and that in strategic industries the countries replacing China are deeply integrated in China's own supply chains ^[22]. Fajgelbaum and co-authors show that many "bystander" countries grew their exports of tariffed products to the rest of the world, not only to the US ^[23].

The PCB announcements fit this pattern. WUS said its plant would help overseas customers sidestep geopolitical and trade risks ^[11]. PCD&F reported Kinwong's move as part of a migration of board makers to Southeast Asia to limit the impact of US-China trade wars ^[13]. Shennan wanted to raise the share of its PCB revenue from customers outside China, then about 40 percent ^[12]. For Taiwanese groups there is an added motive: Nikkei traces a "Taiwan plus one" strategy to the military drills that followed Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei in 2022 ^[3]. Singha Estate, which sold the Unitech site, attributes the rise in PCB and PCBA investment to geopolitical factors pushing production towards more stable countries ^[8].

Tariffs act mostly through customers

In July 2025 the United States set a 19 percent "reciprocal" tariff on goods from Thailand, and a 40 percent rate on goods found to be transshipped to evade duties ^[24]. That order did not last. In February 2026 the US Supreme Court held that the emergency-powers law behind the reciprocal tariffs does not authorise tariffs ^[30], and from 24 July 2026 goods from Thailand carry a 12.5 percent tariff under Section 301, the same rate the notice sets for China and Vietnam ^[31]. Bare boards are intermediate goods. Nikkei found the direct effect on PCB makers limited because the boards go to assembly plants in Vietnam, India and elsewhere before being built into products for the US ^[3]. The larger effect is indirect. Tariffs shape where customers assemble finished products, and the transshipment rule raises the risk for any supply chain that only relabels goods made elsewhere. US tariff rules have changed repeatedly since 2025, so check the rate in force on the date of entry before relying on these figures.

Incentives, land, power and water

BOI promotion is the common thread. Peng Shen, Compeq and Multi-Fineline Electronics all applied for or received it, and approvals are announced project by project ^{[2][7][17][1]}. Industrial estates compete on utilities. 304 Industrial Park advertises a reservoir of more than 40 million cubic metres and a floating solar plant ^[15]. S Industrial Estate Angthong lists three combined heat and power plants with 403 MW in total, 10,000 cubic metres a day of ultrafiltered water and 6,610.9 cubic metres a day of wastewater treatment ^[8]. WUS cited advantages in land, plant, manpower and taxation, and a PCB supply chain that is "constantly improving" ^[11].

A cluster that builds itself

Clusters often follow investment rather than precede it. In a study of Thailand's automotive and hard disk drive industries, Kohpaiboon and Jongwanich conclude that industrial clusters can be a developmental outcome rather than a precondition of upgrading ^[25]. The PCB wave looks similar. I-Connect007 reports that First Quality Circuit had to build its supply chain from scratch and paid more than it would in China at first, with the gap expected to narrow as upstream suppliers open factories in Thailand ^[14]. The BOI's own totals include raw-material projects alongside board plants ^[1]. Our reading is that once several large fabs share a region, it pays for laminate, chemical and equipment suppliers to follow, which lowers costs for the next entrant.

Constraints and risks

Skilled people

Peng Shen alone expects to need more than 1,000 highly skilled staff by 2027 and has signed training agreements with five Thai universities and institutes ^[4]. Nikkei reports a "talent war" in which pay for experienced production line managers has doubled in two to three years, strong demand for engineers and office staff who speak Chinese, and one executive's estimate that production personnel in Thailand cost about three times as much as in China once efficiency and incentives are counted ^[3]. First Quality Circuit's workforce of about 480 includes about 200 workers from Myanmar alongside about 180 Thai production staff ^[14].

Water, wastewater and the licence to operate

PCB fabrication is a wet process that uses large volumes of water and produces metal-bearing wastewater. According to I-Connect007, First Quality Circuit's plant can treat 1,500 tons of wastewater a day with discharge better than local standards ^[14], and industrial estates advertise treatment capacity as a selling point ^[8]. A new plant needs a factory licence. GCE's application in Prachin Buri, for a class 3 factory, went through a public hearing run by the provincial industry office, which recorded no objections in September 2024 ^[6].

What we could not find is any published estimate of the combined water use and discharge of the new plants in the Prachin Buri and Chachoengsao cluster. With many fabs ramping at the same time in one region, that cumulative load, rather than any single plant, is the environmental risk to watch.

Materials and equipment are still imported

"All of the high-end materials need to be imported," a PCB executive with more than 20 years in the industry told Nikkei, adding transport and warehouse costs ^[3]. At First Quality Circuit, core materials and high-end chemicals came mainly from China, early costs ran 10 to 15 percent above Chinese levels, and the premium was expected to fall to seven to eight percentage points within two to three years ^[14]. This matches the finding of Freund and co-authors that countries replacing China in strategic industries depend on China's supply chains ^[22]. In our reading, Thai boards now replace Chinese boards in a customer's bill of materials, but much of what goes into them still arrives from abroad. KCE's laminate and prepreg subsidiary is a local exception ^[19].

Power

The BOI itself has named electricity as one of three bottlenecks, alongside land availability and visas and work permits, holding up 80 projects worth THB 480 billion in late 2025 ^[27]. That count covers all sectors, not only PCBs. Estates with their own generation, such as S Industrial Estate Angthong, partly shield their tenants ^[8].

Too much capacity, too soon?

The growth forecasts are steady rather than explosive. Taiwan's Industry, Science and Technology International Strategy Center expects Thai PCB output to grow from USD 3.5 billion in 2024 to USD 5.62 billion in 2030, or 7.6 percent a year ^[3]. According to an analyst quoted by The Nation, many new producers in Southeast Asia have set up only one or two production lines ^[26]. Unimicron's Thai plant entered trial production in mid-2025 with small qualification shipments planned for the fourth quarter ^[28], and a summary of the company's February 2026 earnings call says the plant had not yet reached mass production and might move towards profit in 2027 to 2028 ^[29].

Incumbents are cautious too. A KCE manager told Nikkei that automotive demand was still relatively soft and that the company had not decided when to expand on land it already holds, and an analyst at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research said the outlook was unclear because non-AI demand could suffer from US tariff policy ^[3]. Alfaro and Chor add a general caution: there are already signs that US import prices from Vietnam and Mexico, the main winners in their data, are rising ^[21].

Our assessment is that the wave rests heavily on one demand driver, AI servers and networking. If that demand holds, Thailand keeps a large new cluster with suppliers following it. If it slows, the plants still in customer qualification are the most exposed, and some announced phases will be deferred. The signs to watch are which approved projects reach volume production, whether materials suppliers follow the board makers, and whether anyone publishes water data for the eastern cluster.

How this was researched

This article draws on BOI statements, a provincial industry office notice, a US executive order, company announcements, trade and business press, and four academic papers, all opened and checked on 24 September 2026. Counts and charts come from the MPBxChange register of PCB fabrication plants in Thailand, compiled from company, registry and press sources. The register counts bare-board fabrication plants only, so its totals are not comparable one to one with BOI application counts.