The world PCB industry in 2027: forecasts, capacity, materials and three scenarios

Key points

• Four forecasts of world printed circuit board output in 2027, by named forecasters and published in listing documents and company presentations, run from US$104.9 billion (CIC, September 2026) to about US$132 billion (Prismark, September 2026). The growth they imply for 2027 runs from 9.0% to about 17%.^[1][2][3][4]
• Prismark's newest forecast, dated September 2026 and shown in Zhen Ding Technology's investor presentation, puts output at about US$113 billion in 2026 and about US$132 billion in 2027. In June, Prismark had put 2026 at US$102.0 billion and 2027 at US$114.0 billion.^[4][3]
• Growth stays concentrated in boards for AI servers and networks. In Prismark's June edition, boards of 18 or more layers grow 79.0% in 2026, IC package substrates 28.8% and HDI boards 23.0%, against 3.1% for boards of 4 to 6 layers.^[5] For 2027, Frost & Sullivan and CIC put the fastest growth in IC substrates and HDI.^[2][1]
• By where boards are made, Prismark's June figures give the fastest growth in 2027 to Asia outside mainland China and Japan, which includes Taiwan, Korea and Southeast Asia: 13.2%, against 12.3% for mainland China, 8.4% for Japan, 5.7% for the Americas and 4.8% for Europe.^[3]
• Materials are the limit the sources name most often for 2027. Supply-chain sources expect the thin glass-cloth shortage to ease gradually from the second half of 2027 to 2028, NCAB does not expect supply to improve until late 2027 at the earliest, and Unimicron's chairman sees a gap of about 20% in key materials in 2027.^[6][7][8]
• Twelve plant steps in Thailand are dated to 2027 in company statements, from Zhen Ding's second Thai plant and Victory Giant's building A2 to Fulltech's glass-cloth plant and Panasonic Industry's new MEGTRON building in Ayutthaya.^{[9][10][11][12]}
• Three MPBxChange scenarios, each built from growth rates Prismark publishes, put world output in 2027 at US$114.8 billion if AI spending pauses, US$125.7 billion if materials hold AI-related boards to their long-run pace, and US$137.4 billion if the AI build-out continues at the 2026 pace.

Context

MPBxChange has published sourced analysis of the world market in 2026, demand to 2030, the industry by region, the largest companies, the 2026 material shortage, substrate capacity and Thailand's plant pipeline. This article draws them together for 2027 and brings them up to date with what forecasters and companies published up to 5 November 2026.

The market figures measure the value of bare boards. Prismark describes its series as the bare board PCB market,^[13] and the filings that reproduce its tables count IC package substrates as one of its seven product groups.^[5] Assembly of components onto boards is outside it. Every forecast below carries the name of whoever made it and when; figures that MPBxChange calculates from them are marked as such.

The wider economy gives a steady background. The IMF's October 2026 World Economic Outlook, as reported by the Australian Industry Group, projects world growth of 3.1% in 2026 and 3.4% in 2027,^[14] and 2.1% in both years for Thailand.^[15] WSTS forecasts that the semiconductor market, which drives demand for package substrates, will grow a further 27% in 2027 to about US$1.9 trillion, after a rise of about 90% in 2026 led by memory.^[16]

World PCB output, 2023 to 2027

Sources: Tripod Technology,^[17] Shennan Circuits,^[18] CIC in Kinwong's prospectus,^[1] WUS Printed Circuit,^[5] Shengyi Electronics,^[3] Avary Holding,^[19] Frost & Sullivan in Dynamic Electronics' application proof,^[2] Zhen Ding Technology,^[4] TPCA^[20] and N.T. Information.^[21] Growth in 2027 is an MPBxChange calculation from each forecaster's 2026 and 2027 figures. The September Prismark figures are the data labels of a chart, in whole billions, and the 2030 figure in the April row is from Prismark's fourth-quarter 2025 report.

Prismark's estimates for the years just ended were US$69.5 billion for 2023, in its fourth-quarter 2024 report, and US$73.6 billion for 2024, in its fourth-quarter 2025 report.^[22][18]

The forecasts fall into two groups by their 2026 base. CIC's 2026 figure equals Prismark's spring figure of US$95.8 billion, and Frost & Sullivan's equals Prismark's June figure of US$102.0 billion; their 2027 figures add 9.5% and 9.0%.^[1][2] Prismark's own forecast for 2027 rose from US$114.0 billion in June to about US$132 billion in September, by about US$18 billion (MPBxChange calculation: 132 minus 114.0), as its 2026 figure rose from US$102.0 billion to about US$113 billion.^[3][4] On the September chart, output grows about 31% in 2026 and about 17% in 2027, then by about 7% a year to US$162 billion in 2030 (MPBxChange calculation from the rounded labels: 113 / 86 = 1.31; 132 / 113 = 1.17; 162 / 132 = 1.23 over three years).^[4]

Readings from Taiwan point the same way as the newest forecast. TPCA expects Taiwanese-owned makers, counting their plants at home and abroad, to produce NT$1,136.5 billion of boards in 2026, 24.2% more than in 2025 and the first year above NT$1 trillion, and expects prices and volumes to keep rising together while high-end materials stay tight.^[23] It expects part of the industry's new capacity to open from 2027 to 2029, and supply-chain tightness to last at least through 2027.^[24]

The forecasters count differently, so their figures are not interchangeable. N.T. Information estimates that about 2,500 fabricators made about US$115 billion of boards in 2025, of which about US$10 billion were assembled boards, leaving about US$104 billion of bare boards; it expects 2026 output may reach US$135 billion, with growth in 2026 through 2027 driven by advanced substrates and high-layer-count multilayer boards.^[21] Part of the growth in value is price. Prismark's June edition expects the area of board shipped to grow about 5.4% a year to 2030, against 11.0% a year for value,^[5] and Goldman Sachs analysts, cited by Reuters in April 2026, said board prices rose as much as 40% in April alone from March.^[25]

Growth by product

Sources: WUS Printed Circuit (2026 values and growth rates) and Shengyi Electronics (2025 and 2030 values), both reproducing Prismark's report of June 2026.^[5][3]

Two forecasters give 2027 by product. Frost & Sullivan, working from Prismark's June figures, expects IC substrates to grow 11.5% in 2027, HDI 11.1%, multilayer boards 9.9%, single and double-sided boards 4.5% and flexible boards 4.4%. CIC expects package substrates to grow 14.5%, HDI 10.5%, multilayer boards 9.5%, flexible boards 5.3% and single and double-sided boards 3.4% (MPBxChange calculations from the published 2026 and 2027 values).^[2][1]

High-layer-count boards. Boards of 18 or more layers are the fastest-growing group in Prismark's June figures: 79.0% in 2026 and 30.3% a year to 2030.^[5] They are the main boards of AI servers and switches. Zhen Ding showed AI server boards of up to 34 layers made with M8-grade, ultra and extreme low-loss materials at SEMICON Taiwan 2026.^[26]

HDI, including any-layer and SLP. HDI grows 23.0% in 2026 and 13.1% a year to 2030 in Prismark's figures.^[5] The finest lines are made by mSAP, the process used for substrate-like boards (SLP). Zhen Ding's 1.6T optical-module boards combine SLP (mSAP) fine lines with buried vias, and the company says 1.6T and later generations require mSAP.^[26] Victory Giant told investors on 29 October 2026 that its mSAP capacity is fully taken by customers and that two further plants dedicated to mSAP, with planned annual output of about RMB20 billion, will start production and ramp up from 2027.^[10]

IC package substrates. TPCA and ITRI put world substrate output at US$14.75 billion in 2025, of which BT substrates were about US$7.03 billion and ABF substrates about US$7.72 billion, and expect US$19.51 billion in 2026, up 32.3%.^[27] Ibiden, which makes substrates for AI GPUs, estimates from customer information that total demand for substrates made by the semi-additive process will be 35% higher in 2027 than in 2026 and 3.5 times higher in 2030, and that it will greatly exceed the industry's supply capacity.^[28] NVIDIA plans to raise substrate capacity for its products 2.5 times over three years; the Unimicron expansion it supports in Taiwan is to begin adding capacity in the second quarter of 2027.^[29]

Flexible boards grow 6.3% in 2026 and 4.5% a year to 2030 in Prismark's figures.^[5] Zhen Ding expects its revenue from AI glasses, which use more flexible circuits per device, to keep growing quickly in both 2026 and 2027.^[26] Standard multilayer boards of 4 to 6 layers grow 3.1% in 2026 and 3.8% a year to 2030, and single and double-sided boards 4.3% and 4.2%.^[5]

Growth by end use

Prismark's June edition, as quoted in Avary Holding's prospectus of September 2026, makes servers and data storage the largest end market for boards in 2025, at US$16.03 billion or 18.7% of the total, ahead of mobile phones at US$15.05 billion or 17.5%; computers, automotive electronics and consumer electronics follow with about 11.9%, 11.3% and 11.0%. To 2030 it expects servers and data storage to grow 24.8% a year and wired infrastructure 19.0%, against about 4.5% for mobile phones, 2.9% for computers and 3.7% for consumer electronics.^[19]

Sources: TrendForce,^{[30][31][32][33][34]} CIC,^[1] Frost & Sullivan,^[2] Goldman Sachs Research as shown by Zhen Ding,^[4] IDC^[35] and Omdia.^[36]

AI servers and data-centre networking. TrendForce expects the nine largest cloud providers to raise capital spending above US$1.5 trillion in 2027 and AI server shipments to grow nearly 36%; it expects AI server revenue to rise by more than 90% to nearly US$920 billion and total server revenue to pass US$1 trillion for the first time.^[30] TPCA, citing Gartner, put 2026 AI server shipments at about 3.7 million units, up 55.9%.^[27] The size of the AI server board market depends on what is counted: for 2027, CIC gives US$12.7 billion, Frost & Sullivan US$13.9 billion and Goldman Sachs Research US$37.5 billion.^[1][2][4] TTM Technologies has given a preliminary forecast of US$6.5 to 6.75 billion of net sales for 2027.^[37]

General servers and storage. TrendForce expects all server shipments to grow nearly 20% in both 2026 and 2027, and names high-end boards as critical components for new platforms, with shortages of components and materials extending into 2027.^[31] CIC expects boards for general-purpose servers and other data infrastructure to fall from US$5.5 billion in 2026 to US$4.6 billion in 2027, while boards for AI servers grow from US$9.6 billion to US$12.7 billion and boards for switches from US$9.1 billion to US$10.6 billion.^[1]

Smartphones and PCs. Memory makers moving capacity to AI products have raised the cost of phones and computers. IDC recorded a 22.0% fall in smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2026 and expects growth to be constrained through 2027, with any recovery pushed to 2028 at the least.^[35] Omdia expects PC shipments to fall a further 7% in 2027,^[36] and TrendForce expects notebook shipments to fall by a low single-digit percentage.^[33] ITRI's ISTI, in TPCA's January release, estimated that memory accounts for about 15% to 20% of the material cost of low and mid-range phones.^[20]

Automotive. The IEA expects 23 million electric cars to be sold in 2026, 28% of all car sales.^[38] CIC expects boards for automotive electronics to grow from US$10.7 billion in 2026 to US$11.6 billion in 2027.^[1] Ventec's new Thai laminate plant will also serve its existing automotive electronics customers.^[39]

Satellites, aerospace and defence. TrendForce expects the satellite industry to generate US$447 billion by 2027, growing 14% a year.^[34] ITEQ says its Thai laminate plant fully meets out-of-China conditions for low-earth-orbit satellite boards, a US defence and aerospace concern, and expects revenue from these customers from the first half of 2027,^[40] and Fulltech's Thai glass-cloth plant is to supply low-earth-orbit satellite as well as AI server and substrate applications.^[11]

Optical modules. Dell'Oro, as quoted by Shengyi Electronics, expects 1.6T ports to reach large-scale commercial use in 2027, with 3.2T following in 2030.^[3] TrendForce expects pluggable transceiver revenue to rise 76% in 2027, with 1.6T products about 56% of it,^[32] and Zhen Ding says customers have already begun reserving its 2027 capacity for high-end optical-module boards.^[26]

Growth by region

Source: Shengyi Electronics, reproducing Prismark's year-by-year regional forecast;^[3] growth and shares are MPBxChange calculations from the published values, which are in US$ 100 million.

Mainland China makes most of the world's boards in every year of the forecast: 57.9% in 2027 on Prismark's June figures, growing 12.3% (MPBxChange calculation: 659.82 / 587.81 = 1.123).^[3] Its makers keep adding capacity at home as well as abroad: Zhen Ding's HDI, mSAP and high-layer-count plants at its Huai'an campus are to begin production in March 2027,^[26] and Avary has more than ten new plants under construction in Huai'an, Shenzhen and Thailand, to open from 2027.^[41]

Asia outside mainland China and Japan grows fastest, 13.2% in 2027 and 13.2% a year to 2030.^[3] WUS reads Southeast Asia as the strongest-growing area, as board suppliers invest outside mainland China to diversify supply and manage geopolitical risk, tariffs and changes in trade policy.^[5] TPCA estimates that Southeast Asia already makes about 12.3% of the world's boards, mostly in plants owned by foreign groups, with locally owned makers at about 1%. It expects Thailand's output to grow from US$5.06 billion in 2025 to US$6.09 billion in 2026, Vietnam's from US$4.15 billion to US$4.9 billion and Malaysia's from US$2.09 billion to US$2.41 billion.^[42]

Japan grows 8.4% in 2027 in Prismark's June figures.^[3] Meiko Electronics agreed in principle on 27 October 2026 to acquire Unimicron Japan, to expand its capacity in Japan quickly and avoid concentrating it in Vietnam.^[43] Korea's makers are counted in the Asian group. Samsung Electro-Mechanics' package-substrate sales were 938 billion won in the third quarter of 2026, up 58% on a year earlier, as reported by the Herald Business.^[44]

The Americas grow 5.7% and Europe 4.8% in 2027 on the same figures.^[3] North American board makers' book-to-bill ratio was 1.77 in September 2026, and their shipments in the first nine months were 13.3% higher than a year earlier, according to the Global Electronics Association.^[45]

Companies

The largest makers by 2025 revenue, as ranked by N.T. Information, and what each has said about 2027 in its own filings, presentations or calls:

Sources: N.T. Information (ranks),^[46] Zhen Ding,^[26][9] NVIDIA,^[29] DSBJ,^[47][48] Shennan Circuits,^[49] TTM,^[37][50] WUS,^[51] Victory Giant,^[10] Compeq as reported by Anue,^[52] Kyocera,^[53] Kinwong,^[1] AT&S,^[54] Kingboard Holdings,^[55] Ibiden^[28] and Samsung Electro-Mechanics.^[56]

Two statements frame the year for the leaders. Zhen Ding says new capacity from its plants under construction will come online in phases from 2026 to 2030.^[26] Ibiden says that, with Korean makers joining, three suppliers now serve the most advanced AI substrates, but their combined capacity falls short of total demand.^[57] Avary describes high-end HDI and high-layer-count capacity as short of demand, and DSBJ expects the shortage to last for some time because expansion takes long.^[41][47]

Capacity and investment

Capital spending rose with sales. Prismark reports that capital spending by the 40 largest PCB companies rose 27% in 2025, to 15.6% of their sales from 14.9% in 2024.^[13] The MPBxChange study of 38 listed board makers found the same pattern in their accounts.

Commitments announced in 2026 run into 2027 and beyond:

Sources: Zhen Ding,^[26] Anue,^[58] NVIDIA,^[29] Anue (Compeq),^[52] Ibiden,^[59][60][28] Samsung Electro-Mechanics,^[61] AT&S,^[54] TTM^[50] and Panasonic Industry.^[12]

Equipment sets the pace at which this capacity can arrive. Unimicron's chairman said in October that some machines now have lead times of 30 months, and that the lead times of more than 80% of equipment have lengthened as every maker builds plants.^[8] Ibiden expects a new building to take at least four years from decision.^[57] Analysts writing on Anue note that lamination equipment for ABF substrates has a lead time of at least two years, so that wholly new substrate plants may add capacity only in 2029,^[62] and Avary describes upstream equipment supply as generally tight across the industry.^[41]

Capacity dated to 2027

Sources: Suntak,^[63] Avary,^[41] Zhen Ding,^[26][9] Kyocera,^[53] NVIDIA,^[29] DSBJ,^[48] Sihui Fuji,^[64] Anue (Ventec),^[39] Ibiden,^[28] Victory Giant,^[10] Kinwong,^[1] Kingboard Holdings,^[55] Elite Material,^[65] Anue (ITEQ),^[66] Anue (Taiwan Glass),^[67] Anue (Co-Tech),^[68] Kingboard Laminates,^[69] Anue (Taiwan Union Technology),^[70] the United Daily News (Fulltech),^[11] Benchuan Intelligent^[71] and Panasonic Industry.^[12] Every row is a company's stated plan, not output.

Materials and prices

Glass cloth. The tightest material is glass cloth in thin styles. Supply-chain sources cited by Commercial Times on 22 October 2026 named styles 2116, 1080 and 1078 as especially short, with weaving looms the bottleneck: the world's loom capacity is about 2,400 machines a year and may rise to 3,600 in 2027. Jushi's new capacity is mainly heavy 7628 cloth for 2027, a different style from those in shortest supply. The same sources expect the shortage to ease gradually from the second half of 2027 to 2028, depending on equipment deliveries, new capacity and product changeovers.^[6] Kingboard Laminates, which plans new glass-fabric capacity in 2027, says high-performance weaving looms have become virtually impossible to source.^[69] The low-expansion T-glass used in substrates is a separate bottleneck; Nittobo, its main supplier, expects capacity in the year to March 2029 to be three times that of the year to March 2026, as reported by TrendForce.^[72] Taiwan Glass expects to complete the third phase of its electronic glass-fabric expansion in 2027.^[67]

A Thai board maker's filings show the effect on mainstream boards. KCE Electronics reported on 5 November 2026 that the shortage of laminate and prepreg was largely due to the constrained supply of specialised fiberglass, as suppliers kept prioritising capacity for AI server applications, and that the average price of fiberglass it bought was US$0.95 a metre in the third quarter of 2026, 27.84% more than in the second quarter and 87.64% more than a year earlier.^[73] The article on glass cloth and laminate for Thai plants sets out the Thai side in detail.

Laminate (CCL). Boards for AI servers use low-loss grades: Zhen Ding's 34-layer server boards use M8-grade materials, Taiwan Union Technology's second Thai phase is aimed at M7 and above, and ITEQ plans to transfer its M9 technology to Thailand in 2027.^[26][70][66] Prices have risen in rounds. Kingboard Laminates raised prices of laminate and prepreg made with 2116 or thinner cloth by 15% on 13 October 2026, its eighth increase of the year, and Panasonic notified customers of a 200% increase, to three times the former price, for certain general multilayer laminates shipped from 1 January 2027, including from its plant in Ayutthaya.^[74] Nan Ya Plastics said in October that the supply gap in electronic materials keeps widening and that price increases are spreading from high-end to basic grades.^[75] Laminate makers told Sihui Fuji that prices are still rising and that the rise will probably last until new laminate capacity arrives in the second quarter of 2027.^[64] Capacity is rising: Elite Material plans laminate capacity of 8.70 million sheets a month in 2027, up from 5.85 million in 2026.^[65]

Copper foil. The Global Electronics Association names copper foil, resin and electronic glass fabric as key bottlenecks, particularly in the high-performance grades used in advanced boards.^[45] Co-Tech is adding capacity at its third Yunlin plant quarter by quarter in 2027 and expects the first capacity at its new Malaysian plant in the third to fourth quarter of 2028.^[68] Mitsui Kinzoku plans to raise output of its VSP foil to 1,200 tonnes a month by fiscal 2028.^[76] The World Bank expects copper to average US$13,200 a tonne in 2026 and US$13,000 in 2027, with metal prices as a group falling about 3% in 2027 after a rise of about 25% in 2026.^[77][78]

ABF and substrate materials. Unimicron's chairman named T-glass cloth, laminate and ABF as the materials where a gap of about 20% may open in 2027.^[8] TPCA notes that new low-CTE glass-cloth capacity takes time to ramp and new suppliers must be qualified by customers, so that substrate supply cannot rise quickly.^[27]

When relief is expected:

Sources: Sihui Fuji,^[64] Commercial Times,^[6] NCAB,^[7] United Daily News (TPCA),^[24] TrendForce^[31] and Economic Daily News.^[8]

Technology in 2027

Optical links. 1.6T is the speed most sources tie to 2027: Dell'Oro expects 1.6T ports at scale in 2027,^[3] TrendForce expects 1.6T to provide about 56% of pluggable transceiver revenue,^[32] WUS reports boards for 1.6T switches shipping in volume and work on 3.2T,^[51] and Victory Giant reports that its mSAP workshop is ramping 1.6T optical-module boards.^[10] Co-packaged optics (CPO) comes later: TrendForce describes 2027 as the key year for CPO testing and 2028 as the period for validating readiness for large-scale mass production.^[79]

mSAP and fine lines. mSAP spreads from phones to optical modules and AI boards. Sihui Fuji expects its first mSAP line in Thailand to start production in the second quarter of 2027 and to contribute revenue from the fourth quarter,^[64] and Victory Giant plans two dedicated mSAP plants from 2027.^[10]

Glass-core substrates. TPCA describes glass substrates as still at the stage of technical verification and supply-chain building, with first use expected in large, high-power AI GPU, ASIC and HPC packages.^[27] N.T. Information notes that no maker yet claims mass production of glass-core substrates.^[21]

Larger and thicker boards. Zhen Ding's ABF substrates reach 158 by 158 millimetres and 28 layers, and its server boards up to 34 layers.^[9][26] These sizes add to the demand for thin glass cloth, low-loss laminate and long-lead lamination and drilling equipment described above.

Trade and policy

United States tariffs. Since 24 July 2026 the United States has charged a Section 301 tariff of 12.5% on products of Thailand, with listed exemptions, after finding that Thailand does not impose and enforce a ban on imports made with forced labour.^[80] The rate is 10% for economies that make qualifying commitments to adopt and enforce such a ban, including through reciprocal trade agreements.^[81] Thailand reported in September 2026 that it had agreed the main terms of a reciprocal trade agreement with the United States, with technical details still to be completed.^[81]

A second Section 301 investigation, into structural excess capacity in manufacturing, was opened on 11 March 2026 and covers 16 economies, among them Thailand, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.^[82] The Trade Act sets a deadline of 12 months from initiation for a determination in a case of this kind, which MPBxChange reads as 11 March 2027.^[83] Its outcome remained under consideration in September 2026.^[81]

China plus one. Companies present their new Thai plants in these terms: Ventec describes its Ayutthaya plant as carrying out a China plus one strategy,^[39] and ITEQ says its Thai plant fully meets out-of-China conditions for low-earth-orbit satellite boards.^[40] WUS expects Southeast Asia to grow fastest as suppliers diversify.^[5]

Investment support. Thailand's Board of Investment received applications for promotion of 222 PCB and PCB-material projects, with proposed investment of 320,078 million baht, from 2023 to 2025; these are applications, not money invested.^[84] TPCA notes that Vietnam has listed AI, cloud computing and semiconductors as national strategic technologies, with US$110 million from a national science and technology fund, and that Malaysia supports the industry through its National Semiconductor Strategy.^[42]

Thailand in 2027

TPCA expects Thailand, Southeast Asia's largest board producer, to make US$6.09 billion of boards in 2026, 20.4% more than in 2025.^[42] Two MPBxChange models look further ahead. The pipeline model gives the most likely bare-board output of the announced plants as US$3,465 million in 2027,^[85] and the export forecast gives most likely bare-board exports of US$2,133 million in 2027, with an 80% range of US$1,807 to 2,993 million.^[86]

The twelve steps dated to 2027 in Thailand, all stated plans:

• First quarter: Suntak Technology's first phase in Prachin Buri to be completed.^[63]
• Second quarter: Sihui Fuji's first mSAP line to start production.^[64]
• During 2027: Zhen Ding's second Thai plant in Prachin Buri to enter volume production, with output value about twice that of the first plant.^[9]
• During 2027: Victory Giant's building A2 to release capacity step by step, after building A1 reached full production in the fourth quarter of 2026.^[10]
• During 2027: Kinwong's Thai base to add 13,000 working panels a month of ultra-high-layer-count boards.^[1]
• During 2027: the first phase of Kingboard's plant in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, 600,000 square feet a month.^[55]
• During 2027: Ventec's treating capacity in Ayutthaya, adding 15% to the plant's design capacity.^[39]
• During 2027: ITEQ's transfer of M9 laminate technology to its Thai plant.^[66]
• Second half: Taiwan Union Technology's second Thai phase, 600,000 laminate sheets a month.^[70]
• Third quarter: Fulltech's glass-cloth plant in Chachoengsao to begin mass production.^[11]
• Fourth quarter: Benchuan Intelligent's Thai plant to start production, 400,000 square metres of high-layer-count boards.^[71]
• November: Panasonic Industry's new MEGTRON building in Ayutthaya to begin operations.^[12]

Each step appears with its source in the Thailand PCB tracker, and the plants in the MPBxChange plant register. People are part of the plan: the BOI expects Zhen Ding's four Thai projects to employ more than 5,600 Thai staff,^[87] and its Thai joint venture Peng Shen Technology said it would need more than 1,000 highly skilled staff by 2027.^[88] The jobs article covers the skills involved. Thailand is also to host the 17th World Electronic Circuits Convention in 2027.^[89]

Risks and what would change the forecast

• AI capital spending. Most of the growth rests on it. The IMF warned in October 2026 that weaker or less durable AI investment could trigger a market correction.^[90] TPCA named four uncertainties for the industry: rising component costs weighing on end demand, continued shortages of key materials, geopolitics, and the return on AI investment.^[23]
• Materials and equipment. A gap of about 20% in key materials in 2027 and equipment lead times of up to 30 months would limit how much of the demand can be met.^[8]
• Memory and consumer devices. TrendForce expects memory to take 68% of cloud providers' capital spending in 2027, up from 47% in 2026,^[91] and IDC expects smartphone growth to stay constrained through 2027.^[35]
• Power. The IEA expects data-centre electricity use to roughly double from 485 TWh in 2025 to 950 TWh in 2030,^[92] and TrendForce expects data-centre power demand to grow more than 30% in 2027.^[93] In Thailand, renewable electricity accounts for only about 3% of power use at some leading board producers.^[94]
• Energy and petrochemicals. In April 2026 the conflict in the Middle East disrupted supplies of raw materials for boards, and a South Korean board maker reported waiting times for epoxy resin of 15 weeks, against three weeks before.^[25]
• Tariffs. The determination in the excess-capacity investigation, due by 11 March 2027, could change duties on Thai and other Asian goods.^[82][83]
• Currency. Forecasts are in US dollars, so exchange rates move them. N.T. Information notes the yen at about 160 to the dollar through 2026 and expects fewer Japanese makers in its next ranking as a result.^[21]

Three scenarios for 2027

The scenarios ask what world output would be in 2027 under three sets of assumptions, using only growth rates Prismark itself publishes for each product group. Each group is grown from its 2026 value in Prismark's June edition, the latest with a product split, by its 2026 growth rate or by its average annual growth from 2025 to 2030, or held at its 2026 value. The resulting growth for the whole market is then applied to Prismark's September figure for 2026, about US$113 billion. The AI groups are the four whose 2026 growth Prismark puts at 19.7% or more: 8 to 16 layers, 18 layers and above, HDI and IC substrates.

MPBxChange calculation. Each cell is the 2026 value times one plus the rate: for example, 18 layers and above in the first scenario is 9,406 × 1.790 = 16,837. The growth for the market is the scenario total divided by the 2026 total: 123,966 / 101,953 = 1.216, 113,421 / 101,953 = 1.112 and 103,594 / 101,953 = 1.016. On the September base, 113 × 1.216 = 137.4, 113 × 1.112 = 125.7 and 113 × 1.016 = 114.8, using the unrounded growth. The seven 2026 values sum to 101,953, one million below the printed total because of rounding. Rates and values are from WUS and Shengyi Electronics, reproducing Prismark.^[5][3]

The forecasters' own figures for 2027 sit inside the range on their own bases. Prismark's September forecast of about US$132 billion, about 17% growth, lies between the first two scenarios on the September base; its June forecast of US$114.0 billion, 11.8% growth, and Frost & Sullivan's US$111.2 billion lie close to the second scenario on the June base; CIC's 9.5% growth on a lower base lies between the second and third.^[4][3][2][1] The first scenario assumes the AI groups repeat growth that the sources already describe as limited by materials; the second assumes those limits hold AI-related boards to Prismark's long-run pace for a year; the third assumes AI-related boards stop growing while other boards keep their long-run pace.

Data and method

This article draws on Prismark forecasts as reproduced in the interim and annual reports of WUS Printed Circuit, Shengyi Electronics and Shennan Circuits, in Avary Holding's prospectus and in investor presentations by Zhen Ding Technology and Tripod Technology; forecasts by CIC and Frost & Sullivan in Hong Kong listing documents of Kinwong and Dynamic Electronics; releases of TPCA, WSTS, TrendForce, IDC, the IEA, the World Bank, NVIDIA, the Global Electronics Association and the Board of Investment; filings, presentations and investor records of the companies named; the NTI-100 ranking by N.T. Information; US Federal Register notices and the Trade Act; and reports by Anue, Commercial Times, the Economic Daily News, the United Daily News, the Central News Agency, the Liberty Times, Reuters, the Herald Business, the Asia Business Daily, the Australian Industry Group and Indonesia Business Post. All were read on 5 November 2026.

Prismark's figures are as printed in the filings that reproduce them; the September 2026 figures are the data labels of a chart, in whole billions of US dollars, and the CIC and Frost & Sullivan figures for 2026 and 2027 are the data labels of their charts. Dynamic Electronics' document is an application proof, published in draft. Amounts are in the currency each source uses. Company figures for capacity, capital spending and timing are the companies' stated plans and are not counted as output. Growth rates, shares and the scenarios are MPBxChange calculations from the cited figures, with the arithmetic shown. No company was contacted. Interpretation is MPBxChange analysis.