Zhen Ding in Prachin Buri: new plants from late 2026 and a further BOI application

Key points

• On 29 October 2026 the chairman of Zhen Ding Technology (ZDT) called on Thailand's Prime Minister at Government House. The government's release states that the group's plan to expand its investment in Thailand is in the process of applying for BOI promotion; it gives no amount, products or timetable for the expansion.^[1]
• The group's Thai company, Peng Shen Technology (Thailand), runs one plant in the Saha Group Industrial Park Kabinburi, Prachin Buri. The plant entered trial production in May 2025 and volume production in the third quarter of 2025, making high-end HDI, high-layer-count and optical-module boards. On 29 October 2026 Avary Holding, the ZDT subsidiary that runs the project, said the Thai plant was running at full production.^[2][3][4][5]
• Three more plant buildings and a mechanical drilling centre are under construction, with trial production planned in stages from the fourth quarter of 2026. Plant 2 is planned to reach volume production in 2027, with output value expected at twice that of plant 1.^[4][6]
• ZDT's site plan gives 423,204 square metres of land, 53,590 square metres of floor area in phase one and 406,824 square metres of floor area under construction, about 7.6 times the phase one figure.^[4]
• Funding has come in steps, each on its own basis: a board plan of RMB 4,297 million for the park in 2026, a capital increase of THB 7,182 million in June 2026, and, on 28 October 2026, applications for credit lines of US$330 million and THB 6,000 million with five banks.^[7][8][9]
• Nine construction and mechanical-and-electrical contracts filed between June 2025 and March 2026 total THB 15,570.4 million before tax. The BOI expects the four promoted projects to employ more than 5,600 Thai staff, and on 5 November 2026 the company listed 25 open positions.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]}

The group and its Thai company

Zhen Ding Technology Holding (ZDT, Taiwan Stock Exchange 4958) reported revenue of NT$182,522 million for 2025 and describes itself as the world's largest PCB maker for the ninth year running.^[21] It had 52,108 employees at the end of 2025 and counts 28 factory buildings in mainland China, Taiwan and Thailand, 19 of them smart factories.^[4] Its place among the largest makers is set out in the 2025 ranking of PCB companies.

The group's board plants, the one in Prachin Buri among them, sit under Avary Holding (Shenzhen) (鹏鼎控股, Shenzhen Stock Exchange 002938), which names Peng Shen as its Thai subsidiary.^[4][7] ZDT describes Peng Shen Technology (Thailand) as a joint venture that Avary Holding and Thailand's Saha Group set up in 2023, which took more than 40 hectares of land in Prachin Buri in December 2023 and began building its PCB base there.^[22] The company was established on 15 September 2023 and is registered at 288 Moo 5, Nonsi, Kabin Buri, Prachin Buri.^[23] Its shareholders are covered in who owns Thailand's PCB plants, and the plant's entry in the MPBxChange plant register lists its sources.

The group has stated its reasons for Thailand on several occasions. In March 2026 the group's chairman told investors that the heavy investment in Thailand was a matter of geopolitics rather than labour cost, and that the group was spreading capacity over several bases to meet customers' demand for dispersed production and supply-chain flexibility.^[24] In October 2026 Avary told the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that the HDI capacity in Thailand mainly serves downstream customers' need for diversified global production.^[25]

The visit of 29 October 2026

At 09.00 on Thursday 29 October 2026 the chairman of the ZDT group and the president of Peng Shen Technology (Thailand), with the managing director of Bank of America's Thailand branch, called on the Prime Minister in the second-floor reception room of Thai Khu Fah Building, Government House. The government's release lists four reasons the group gave for choosing Thailand: government efficiency, infrastructure, supply chain and talent. The group said it would raise the skills of Thai staff by transferring knowledge from foreign experts, so that Thai staff can take leading roles in production, management and the development of the industry.^[1]

According to the release, the group's plan to expand its investment in Thailand is in the process of applying for BOI promotion. The Prime Minister asked government agencies to work closely with investors on the problems and constraints they actually face, and to find solutions within the law. The release gives no amount, product list or timetable for the expansion.^[1]

The application follows the BOI's decision of January 2026, when a BOI sub-committee acting under the board's delegated authority approved three further Peng Shen projects. With the first project, approved in 2023 and in production since September 2025, the four promoted projects are worth more than THB 65,000 million and are expected to employ more than 5,600 Thai staff. They cover multilayer, flexible, substrate-like and HDI boards for smartphones, AI servers and other advanced electronics, for export.^[19] The incentives behind such approvals are covered in the article on BOI incentives for PCB investment.

Dated steps, 2023 to 2026

Avary's board approved a production base in Thailand on 9 August 2023, with investment of about US$250 million covering the subsidiary, land, construction and equipment. The filing named Prachin Buri as the intended location and a joint venture with Thailand's Saha Group in which Avary Singapore would hold at least 90%, and planned trial production of phase one in the first half of 2025.^[26] On 7 December 2023 Peng Shen signed a land agreement with Saha Pathana Inter-Holding, then a 9% shareholder, for 409,784.8 square metres of industrial land in the Saha industrial park in Prachin Buri, at THB 896,404,250.^[27] Saha Pathana Inter-Holding reported that the groundbreaking ceremony took place in mid-December 2023 and that construction began straight away.^[28]

Plant 1 entered trial production in May 2025.^[3] On 8 May 2025 the Ministry of Industry's permanent secretary attended the opening of the phase one plant and the laying of the foundation stone for phase two.^[2] The BOI dates the start of production of the first promoted project to September 2025, and ZDT dates volume production to the third quarter of 2025.^[19][4]

The next buildings followed from mid-2025, when Peng Shen began awarding the construction contracts listed below. On 15 December 2025 Avary's board approved the 2026 investment plan for the park; on 19 January 2026 the BOI approved three more projects; on 29 June 2026 Avary approved a capital increase; and on 28 October 2026 it applied for new credit lines for the Thai company.^{[7][19][23][9]}

According to ZDT, plant 1 has passed qualification and entered volume production with several customers, and further leading server and optical-module customers are qualifying.^[4] ZDT had planned in March 2026 for plant 1 to reach full production in the second quarter of 2026.^[6] In August 2026 Avary said that plant 1's production yield, efficiency and product quality had reached the company's expectations, and on 29 October 2026 that the Thai plant was running at full production.^[29][5]

The site

The park lies in the Saha Group Industrial Park Kabinburi, in Kabin Buri district, Prachin Buri.^[2] ZDT's site plan, updated on 20 March 2026, gives total land of 423,204 square metres (635 mu, or 264 rai), a phase one floor area of 53,590 square metres and 406,824 square metres of floor area under construction.^[4] The floor area under construction is about 7.6 times that of phase one.

The land total reconciles with Avary's filings. The industrial land in the December 2023 agreement, 409,784.8 square metres, and the 8.38725 rai that Peng Shen leases from Saha Pathana Inter-Holding for park construction, about 13,420 square metres at 1,600 square metres to the rai, add up to 423,204 square metres, the total in the site plan.^[27][3][4]

The plan marks each building as built, under construction or still to be built. PA01, the phase one plant, is built. PA02, PA03 and PA06 are plant buildings under construction, as is PA08, a central warehouse that houses the drilling centre. PA05 and PA07 are plant buildings still to be built. Around them the plan shows an administration building, a canteen, a substation, water treatment in three phases, chemical stores and a liquid-nitrogen station.^[4] Avary's annual report names the four buildings under construction as plants 2, 3 and 5 and the mechanical drilling centre.^[3] Avary describes the park's supporting facilities, environmental facilities and utilities as planned and built for the park as a whole, with several plants under construction at the same time.^[29]

Plant 1 makes high-end iHDI, high-layer-count (HLC) and optical-module boards.^[4] ZDT's group page describes phase one as one plant building with through-hole rigid board, thick-board HDI and SLP lines, mainly serving customers' AI server, communications and optical-module boards.^[22] The 2026 plan adds capacity for high-end HDI (including SLP) and HLC, for servers, AI edge devices and low-earth-orbit satellites.^[7] In ZDT's product map of October 2026 the Prachinburi plant has HDI (including SLP and mSAP) and HLC ready, flexible boards (FPC) and SMA marked as "will be ready", and no IC substrates, which the group makes in Shenzhen, Qinhuangdao and Kaohsiung.^[4]

In April 2026 Avary said phase one was expected to add more than RMB 1 billion of output value once it reached full output.^[30] ZDT's March 2026 presentation expects plant 2 to reach twice the output value of plant 1.^[6]

Funding

The amounts are on different bases and in different currencies, and are not added together.

The 2026 plan approved on 15 December 2025 commits RMB 4,297 million during 2026 to plant buildings and surrounding facilities at the park and to capacity for high-end HDI (including SLP) and HLC. The project period is the whole of 2026, and the money comes from Avary's own or self-raised funds.^[7] For the group as a whole, Avary plans capital spending of RMB 16.8 billion in 2026, with the Thai production base among the main projects.^[3]

On 29 June 2026 Avary's board approved a capital increase of THB 7,182 million in Peng Shen, made through its Hong Kong subsidiary and Avary Singapore.^[23] ZDT's filing of the same day gives the terms: 11.97 million shares at THB 600 each, in cash. After the increase Avary Singapore holds 81,970,000 shares, 72.35%, for a cumulative THB 14,182 million.^[8] Avary's filing puts the total at 113.30 million shares after the increase, with the Saha group at 10.00% and AROC at 17.65%; neither is a related party of Avary.^[23]

Construction in progress in Avary's interim report shows the build-out. At 30 June 2026 the Thai phase two project stood at RMB 871.22 million, against RMB 244.12 million at the start of the year; the PA06 plant building at RMB 390.69 million, against RMB 83.73 million; and a Thai dormitory project at RMB 71.73 million.^[31]

On 28 October 2026, the day before the visit to Government House, Avary's board approved applications for credit lines for the company and its subsidiaries. Five are for Peng Shen: US$100 million with Standard Chartered Bank (Thai), US$150 million with Bank of America's Bangkok branch, US$80 million with Citibank's Bangkok branch, THB 800 million with Bangkok Bank and THB 5,200 million with ICBC (Thai). The Bangkok Bank line is new and the other four are increases. All are credit lines without guarantees, mainly for day-to-day operations, and the final amounts are those the banks approve.^[9]

The Thai supply side

The group's chairman said on 20 October 2026, according to the Economic Daily News, that supply chains in Southeast Asia were moving more slowly than expected because supporting industries were not yet complete.^[32] The filings show where the park's construction spending has gone so far: nine contracts with four contractors, filed between June 2025 and March 2026, worth THB 15,570.4 million before tax in total.

Machinery and equipment appear in a second series of filings. Each covers one lot acquired from one counterparty over the twelve months to the filing date. Seven were filed for Peng Shen between April and October 2026, each between NT$1,000.3 million and NT$1,345.1 million.

The two SHINBU CORPORATION filings cover overlapping periods, so the equipment amounts are not added.

Saha group companies also provide land and housing. Besides the land in the 2023 agreement, Peng Shen leases 8.38725 rai of land from Saha Pathana Inter-Holding for park construction and 244 rooms from Saha Pathanapibul for staff dormitories and living facilities.^[3] Materials made inside Thailand are covered in the article on PCB materials made in Thailand.

Peng Shen said in July 2024 that it expected to need more than 1,000 highly skilled staff by 2027. Before signing cooperation agreements with five Thai universities and institutes on 27 June 2024, it had sent a first group of 20 Thai students on a two-month funded summer internship at a ZDT plant in Huai'an, China.^[40] By July 2026 ZDT counted cooperation with ten Thai universities, universities of technology and vocational colleges. It signed a memorandum with a technical college in Prachin Buri in September 2025, and a contract for a second PCB industry class with King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok in June 2026.^[41]

On 5 November 2026 Peng Shen's page on the JobThai recruitment site listed 25 open positions, among them process, CAM, design and quality engineers, an import-export and BOI officer, a Thai-Chinese interpreter and production staff.^[20] Thailand's wider PCB labour market is covered in the article on PCB jobs in Thailand.

Statements on the next plants

The statements place the park's new plants in 2027, after trial production in the new buildings from the fourth quarter of 2026. Of the stated figures, plant 2's is the largest: twice the output value of plant 1. The further expansion now before the BOI has no published size.^[6][1]

The next dated steps are trial production in the new buildings from the fourth quarter of 2026, the opening of plant 2, the BOI's decision on the new application, the banks' approval of the credit lines, and Avary's annual report for 2026, the year of the RMB 4,297 million plan.^{[4][32][1][9][7]} The Thailand PCB tracker records each step as it is disclosed, and the industry overview places the park among Thailand's other PCB plants.

Data and method

This article draws on Avary Holding (Shenzhen)'s filings on CNINFO: the announcements of 10 August and 8 December 2023, 16 December 2025, 30 June 2026 and 29 October 2026; the annual report for 2025 and the interim report for 2026; the reply of October 2026 to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's enquiry; and the investor relations records of 9 April, 12 August and 29 October 2026. It also draws on ZDT's filings on the Taiwan Stock Exchange's Market Observation Post System (MOPS) from June 2025 to October 2026; ZDT's investor presentations of 12 March and October 2026, its results release of 12 March 2026, its release of 22 July 2026 and its group page; the Royal Thai Government's release of 29 October 2026; the BOI's release of 19 January 2026; the Ministry of Industry's release of 9 May 2025; Saha Pathana Inter-Holding's releases of 20 December 2023 and 8 July 2024; reports by Anue (cnyes.com) of 12 March 2026 and the Economic Daily News (udn.com) of 20 October 2026; and the company's recruitment page on JobThai. Filings and releases were read in the original Chinese or Thai between 1 and 5 November 2026; the MOPS filings, the government and BOI releases and the recruitment page were read on 5 November 2026.

Amounts are given in the currencies the sources use, without conversion. RMB and NT$ amounts are shown in millions, and contract amounts in THB million before tax as filed. Board plans, BOI investment values, credit lines and planned output are reported as stated and are not counted as spending, capacity or output. The site plan is ZDT's of 20 March 2026; buildings are given by the codes on the plan, and plants by the numbers the companies use. The ratio of floor areas, the land reconciliation at 1,600 square metres to the rai and the contract total are MPBxChange arithmetic. The investor relations records are management's answers to analysts, and the statements of 20 October 2026 are as reported by the newspaper. No company was contacted. Interpretation is MPBxChange analysis.