Thailand's PCB build-out: investors, locations and drivers

Between 2023 and 2025, Thailand's Board of Investment (BOI) received 222 applications for promotion of 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, from 2023 to November 2025, gave 214 projects worth more than THB 300 billion, covering PCB assembly (PCBA) and key raw materials as well as bare-board fabrication ^[2]. Both totals are applications for promotion, not money invested. The BOI secretary-general has described Thailand as ASEAN's largest PCB production base and among the world's top five ^[2]. The Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA) puts Thailand's PCB production value at US$5.06 billion in 2025 ^[33]; no Thai official series reports board output by value, and customs data provide a partial cross-check. By bare-board exports, Thailand ranked seventh among 118 reporting economies in 2024 (UN Comtrade, October 2026), with 2.6 percent of reported exports, just behind Malaysia ^[32]. Export figures exclude boards assembled into finished products in Thailand, and the gap between the two rankings partly reflects this.

A single plant may file several projects as it adds phases, and the totals include assembly lines and materials plants. Nikkei Asia counted nearly 60 PCB makers from China and Taiwan setting up in Thailand in less than three years ^[3]. The MPBxChange register of bare-board fabrication plants lists 39 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 under construction or announced.

Investors by country of ownership

In the register, mainland Chinese parents form the largest group and Taiwanese parents the second. Japanese, Hong Kong and Thai owners account for the remainder, mostly with plants that predate the current wave. According to Nikkei, the new entrants include a majority of the world's 30 largest PCB makers ^[3].

Taiwanese groups

Zhen Ding Tech (ZDT), described by The Nation 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), a specialist in high-layer-count boards for servers and PCs, announced its Thai plant in May 2023 ^[5]; by 2025 Nikkei's sources reported the first plant running at full capacity ^[3]. Compeq has two Thai companies in Asia Industrial Estate (Suvarnabhumi), Samut Prakan. Compeq (Thailand) opened a multilayer plant there in December 2024, an investment of more than THB 10.4 billion ^[7]. Compeq Technology (Thailand), which makes flexible boards, invested THB 13,000 million in a first phase, and the BOI approved a second phase of THB 9,170 million in May 2026 ^[1]. 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, subject to demand ^[3].

Automotive specialists are also expanding. Dynamic Electronics, described by DigiTimes in 2023 as a Taiwan-based automotive PCB maker, accelerated construction of a Thai plant due to open in the fourth quarter of 2024 ^[9]. Chin Poon, also focused on automotive boards, planned a further THB 1 billion for its existing Thai site ^[10]. A separate, later project is aimed at AI hardware. In January 2026 Shanghai-listed Dynamic Electronics (603175), which Yicai describes as Chinese, raised the budget for a new Thai plant from CNY 1.5 billion to CNY 3.3 billion and its planned capacity from 117,400 to 166,500 square metres a year, for boards used in routers, AI servers, switches and AI accelerator cards ^[16]. MPBxChange treats the 2023 and 2026 reports as two projects.

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 is 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, part of Dongshan Precision, applied in 2024 to invest THB 13.9 billion in multilayer and flexible boards ^[17]; its plant is in Rojana Nong Yai Industrial Estate, Chon Buri, and the BOI approved a second phase of THB 5,800 million in May 2026 ^[1].

Japanese and Thai incumbents

Japanese makers predate the current wave, and several are expanding for the automotive 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, with SVI holding 75 percent, for a THB 3,889 million multilayer and HDI plant in Bangkadi Industrial Park, Pathum Thani ^[20].

Plant locations

Capacity is concentrated in two main clusters. The first runs east of Bangkok into Prachin Buri and Chachoengsao. 304 Industrial Park, with sites in both provinces, hosts CMK and Taihua ^[18][15]; 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]. In the Eastern Economic Corridor, Chon Buri adds Multi-Fineline Electronics at Rojana Nong Yai Industrial Estate ^[1], and Rayong adds First Quality Circuit, a site within reach of Laem Chabang port according to I-Connect007 ^[14]. Smaller groups are located around Bangkok: Compeq in Samut Prakan ^[7], the SVI joint venture in Pathum Thani ^[20] and Unitech in Ang Thong ^[8].

Nearly all new capacity lies within reach of Bangkok and the eastern seaboard ports, which simplifies plant visits and export logistics for buyers.

Product mix

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 Electronics' (603175) new 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 form the second segment. 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, growing segment: Multi-Fineline Electronics' project covers multilayer and flexible boards, and Compeq Technology's second phase, approved in 2026, is a flexible-board project ^[17][1].

Many of these plants are still in customer qualification. Shipment records of the Thai plant itself are the relevant measure of capability for buyers, as distinct from the group's output elsewhere.

Investment drivers

Customer demand for supply outside China

Research on supply chain relocation is consistent with company statements, although these studies do not cover PCBs in Thailand specifically. 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 as well as to the US ^[23].

The PCB announcements are consistent with 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]. Taiwanese groups have an additional 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].

US tariffs and customer assembly locations

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, both from 7 August 2025 under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) ^[24]. Those rates applied until 20 February 2026, when the US Supreme Court held that IEEPA does not authorise tariffs ^[30]. 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, while Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Cambodia face 10 percent ^[31]. Chinese goods also still carry the Section 301 duties imposed from 2018 ^[34]. Bare boards are intermediate goods, and 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 main effect is indirect: tariffs influence where customers assemble finished products. US tariff rules have changed repeatedly since 2025; the applicable rate is the one in force on the date of entry.

Incentives, land, power and water

BOI promotion is common across the projects. Peng Shen, Compeq and Multi-Fineline Electronics applied for or received it, with approvals 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].

Supplier cluster formation

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 build-out follows a similar sequence. I-Connect007 reports that First Quality Circuit built its supply chain from scratch and initially paid more than it would in China, with the gap expected to narrow as upstream suppliers open factories in Thailand ^[14]. The BOI totals include raw-material projects alongside board plants ^[1]. As several large fabs concentrate in one region, laminate, chemical and equipment suppliers gain the scale to follow, lowering costs for subsequent entrants.

Constraints and next-stage investment

Skilled labour

Peng Shen 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 strong competition for experienced staff: pay for production line managers has doubled in two to three years, and engineers and office staff who speak Chinese are in demand ^[3]. The build-out is a growing source of skilled manufacturing employment for Thai engineers and technical graduates.

Water, wastewater and permitting

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 market treatment capacity to tenants ^[8]. New plants require a factory licence. GCE's application in Prachin Buri, for a class 3 factory, went through a public comment period run by the provincial industry office, which reported in September 2024 that no comments were received ^[6].

No published estimate yet covers the combined water use and discharge of the new plants in the Prachin Buri and Chachoengsao cluster. With many fabs ramping concurrently in one region, a shared regional measure of that load would support joint planning by plants, estates and regulators.

Materials localisation

"All of the high-end materials need to be imported," a PCB executive with more than 20 years in the industry told Nikkei ^[3]. At First Quality Circuit, core materials and high-end chemicals came mainly from China, and the plant expected its cost gap with China, 10 to 15 percent at start-up, to narrow to seven to eight percentage points within two to three years ^[14]. This is consistent with the finding of Freund and co-authors that countries replacing China in strategic industries draw on China's supply chains ^[22]. Imported materials represent the next investment opportunity: laminate, prepreg, copper foil and plating chemicals produced close to the plants. KCE's laminate and prepreg subsidiary already makes some of them locally ^[19].

Power

The BOI has named electricity, together with land availability and visas and work permits, as the three items it is working to clear for 80 projects across all sectors worth THB 480 billion in late 2025 ^[27]. Estates with their own generation, such as S Industrial Estate Angthong, offer tenants additional supply ^[8].

Demand outlook

TPCA puts Thailand's PCB production value at US$5.06 billion in 2025, up 22.4 percent on 2024, and projects US$6.09 billion in 2026 ^[33]. An earlier 2025 forecast by Taiwan's Industry, Science and Technology International Strategy Center, of USD 5.62 billion by 2030 from USD 3.5 billion in 2024 ^[3], has already been overtaken. An analyst at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research told Nikkei that many newcomers had so far built only one or two production lines in Thailand ^[3], which on MPBxChange's reading leaves room to add lines as orders grow. Unimicron's Thai plant entered trial production in mid-2025 with qualification shipments planned for the fourth quarter ^[28], and a summary of the company's February 2026 earnings call indicates the plant could move towards profit in 2027 to 2028, after it reaches volume production ^[29].

Established makers are phasing their next expansions. KCE holds land for a further expansion and told Nikkei it had yet to set a construction date, and the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research analyst said demand outside AI depends on US tariff policy ^[3]. Alfaro and Chor note that US import prices from Vietnam and Mexico, the main gainers in their data, have started to rise ^[21], narrowing the cost difference between competing locations.

Outlook

MPBxChange expects AI servers and networking to lead the build-out, with automotive and flexible boards as a second base. If AI demand holds, Thailand retains a large new cluster and materials suppliers are likely to follow the board makers. Key indicators are which approved projects reach volume production, which materials makers locate nearby, and whether a shared water measure for the eastern cluster is published.

Data and method

Sources are BOI statements, a provincial industry office notice, a US executive order, a US Supreme Court opinion, USTR notices, UN Comtrade trade data, TPCA industry data, company announcements, trade and business press, and four academic papers, accessed between 24 September and 21 October 2026. Counts and charts come from the MPBxChange register of PCB fabrication plants in Thailand, compiled from company, registry and press sources. The register covers bare-board fabrication plants only; BOI application counts also include assembly and materials projects.