Recently, the printed circuit board (PCB) industry cluster in Guangde City, Anhui Province, was successfully included in the layout planning of characteristic industrial clusters for county-level manufacturing in Anhui Province. This not only affirms the achievements of the electronic circuit industry development in the Guangde Economic Development Zone but also marks a further consolidation of its status as a ‘national team’ in this field.
As a core component of modern electronic products, printed circuit boards are recognized alongside chips and panels as the three major components of the electronic information industry, earning the title of ‘mother of electronic products.’ In Guangde, the PCB industry has become the core of its important pillar industry of electronic circuits.
From a ‘desolate industrial land’ to a highland gathering 92 electronic circuit enterprises with an annual output value exceeding 10 billion, Guangde City has successfully broken through in the wave of industrial transfer in the Yangtze River Delta, leveraging its golden geographical advantage in the ‘heart of the Yangtze River Delta’ and a systematic plan centered on ‘environmental breakthroughs,’ ‘strengthening and supplementing the industrial chain,’ and ‘optimizing the business environment.’ Currently, Guangde gathers more than two-thirds of the PCB enterprises in Anhui Province and 80% of the output value, successively winning honors such as the provincial-level electronic circuit characteristic industrial cluster and the national-level characteristic industrial cluster for small and medium-sized enterprises in printed circuit boards. It is expected to rank among the top ten new PCB industrial gathering areas in China by 2024. In the first half of this year, the electronic circuit industry in Guangde achieved an output value of 5.14 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.3%.
Environmental Breakthroughs, Creating the ‘Guangde Model’ for Investment Promotion
The rapid rise of the electronic circuit industry in Guangde stems from a precise grasp of the industrial transfer trend in the Yangtze River Delta. Around 2010, facing the dual pressures of rising costs and tightening environmental policies commonly encountered by core cities in the Yangtze River Delta, Guangde fully leveraged its geographical advantages adjacent to Jiangsu and Zhejiang and the environmental capacity of its ecological hinterland. It clearly identified the electronic circuit industry as a breakthrough point for regional industrial transformation and upgrading, establishing a development strategy centered on ‘environmental breakthroughs’ and carving out a differentiated and sustainable path to rise.
In 2010, the Guangde Economic Development Zone planned a 1,605-acre PCB industrial park (later expanded to over 3,200 acres), simultaneously constructing a dedicated wastewater treatment plant and solid waste treatment center for electronic circuits, and innovatively implementing an environmental governance model of ‘classification collection, centralized treatment, and recycling,’ achieving significant results with a wastewater recycling rate of over 90% and a hazardous waste harmless treatment rate of 100%. This model has been named the ‘Guangde Model’ by the China Electronic Circuit Industry Association and is promoted as a typical experience nationwide.
Professional wastewater treatment capabilities have become Guangde’s most persuasive ‘investment promotion card.’ To further enhance attractiveness, Guangde has also constructed standardized factories, a technology entrepreneurship park, an intelligent valley industrial park, and a new energy industrial park, among other carriers, reducing the average construction cycle for enterprises by 60%, truly achieving ‘plug-and-play’ capabilities. The complete supporting facilities have attracted a large number of enterprises from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Zontai Electronics from Wenzhou settled in 2014, and the general manager Liu Yunsheng stated: ‘Choosing Guangde is precisely because of its centralized wastewater and solid waste treatment capabilities and complete supporting service system. The development zone provides one-stop services from technology, talent, facilities to policies, allowing us to focus entirely on enterprise development.’
Strengthening and Supplementing the Chain, Promoting the Industrial Cluster to ‘Form a Circle’
Today, entering the PCB industrial park of Guangde Economic Development Zone, factories are lined up, and production is busy, with the electronic circuit industry achieving a leap from ‘zero foundation’ to ‘full chain’ development. Among them, overcoming the technical bottleneck of IC substrate technology has become a key step for the industry to move towards high-end.
At Xinjude Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd., factory director Zhou Canbin holds an IC substrate and introduces: ‘This is the core material for chip packaging, characterized by high density and high precision, with a very high technical threshold.’ Previously, over 95% of the market for this product was monopolized by enterprises from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, with a domestic localization rate of less than 5%. As the only enterprise in Anhui specializing in IC substrate production, Xinjude has rapidly achieved mass production since settling in May 2023, successfully filling this gap in the industrial chain and winning first prize in the 2024 Yangtze River Delta G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor Innovation Competition.
The establishment and development of Xinjude is a microcosm of Guangde’s strategy of ‘climbing higher’ in the electronic circuit industry. In recent years, the Guangde Economic Development Zone has closely focused on the core links of the industrial chain, continuously promoting the extension, supplementation, and strengthening of the chain, gradually building a vertical industrial ecological chain of ‘glass fiber yarn – copper-clad laminate – PCB – terminal applications.’ This year, the park has successively introduced a number of high-quality projects in key links, such as Sijiao Precision, Yunci Microelectronics, Wenzheng Intelligent, and Xidi Semiconductor, with the ecological collaboration of the entire chain becoming increasingly complete.
Currently, the Guangde Economic Development Zone has gathered 34 high-tech enterprises and 22 specialized and innovative enterprises, with a total of over 1,100 authorized patents. Among them, Yansheng, Mutailai, Wanzheng, and Dayang are ranked among the ‘Top 100 Domestic PCB Enterprises in China,’ demonstrating strong industrial competitiveness and cluster advantages.
Optimizing the Business Environment, Creating a New High Ground for High-Quality Development of the PCB Industry
In recent years, Guangde City has continuously optimized the business environment, using pragmatic measures to promote quality and efficiency improvements for enterprises, fully committed to creating a new high ground for high-quality development of the PCB industry.
In terms of enterprise services, Guangde has established a PCB industry association, which has currently absorbed 102 member units, regularly conducting activities such as production-demand matching and government-business discussions to help enterprises connect upstream and downstream collaboration. This year, two special training sessions have been held, covering 47 enterprises, promoting 12 projects to pass the provincial review for ultra-long-term special national bonds, and obtaining project funding of 42.67 million yuan.
In terms of policy support, Guangde has issued ‘Several Measures to Promote High-Quality Economic and Social Development under the New Situation,’ deeply implementing the industrial ‘Fifty-Hundred-Thousand’ action, formulating support policies such as the ‘Small to Standard’ cultivation work plan and the ‘Cultivating Large and Strengthening’ three-year action plan to promote the PCB industry to grow stronger.
In terms of talent cultivation, Guangde has cooperated with Shanghai Electronic Information Vocational Technical College to jointly build the Yangtze River Delta Electronic Information Industry College, providing technical services for enterprises in the region. At the same time, it continues to promote the integration of government, industry, academia, and research, collaborating with 11 universities such as Hefei University of Technology and Anhui University to promote precise matching of technology needs and talent resources. Xuancheng Electromechanical School has signed school-enterprise agreements with more than ten PCB enterprises in the park, training and delivering over 600 professional talents.
With a number of key enterprises settling in, Guangde is becoming an important gathering area for the regional PCB industry. In the next step, Guangde will continue to optimize the business environment, strengthen industrial chain collaboration, and promote the PCB industry towards high-end, green, and intelligent upgrades, injecting new momentum into the high-quality development of the county economy.
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