Nan Ya PCB has disclosed plans to spend at least NT$8 billion (US$287.5 million) in 2021, compared to a capex of NT$7.35 billion for 2020, for capacity expansions at its plants in China and Taiwan, particularly for ABF substrates, to further drive up its profitability.

Persistently strong demand and resultant price hikes for ABF substrates for processing high-end HPC, server, and networking chips has allowed Nan Ya to ramp up revenues steadily since second-quarter 2020, sending its net earnings soaring to a 12-year high of NT$3.66 billion with revenues rising 23.86% on year to NT$38.513 billion, the company said at an investors conference.

The company said many new clients in the US and China soon filled up the ABF substrate capacity vacated as a result of its loss of orders from Huawei after mid-September 2020, and the clients have brought new applications helping it strengthen product portfolios and further pushing up its profitability.

Nan Ya saw networking applications account for nearly 50% of revenues in 2020, but will focus more efforts on expanding sales of high-end IC substrates for processing high-end CPU, GPU and other HPC chips in 2021.

In terms of product lines, IC substrates contributed 75% of revenues in 2020, compared to 25% for PCBs. The ratio for the former will rise to over 80% in 2021 along with new capacity available for ABF substrates and output increase for SiP substrates resulting from removing manufacturing bottlenecks, the company said.

The company will commercialize new capacity for IC substrates at its plant in Kunshan, China in the second quarter of the year, and new ABF substrate production lines at a plant site rented from its parent Nan Ya Plastics will start commercial runs from fourth-quarter 2021 to first-quarter 2022.

Nan Ya said it will not rule out enforcing more capacity expansion plans later in 2021 if demand from clients remains robust.

By DIGITIMES