PCB Network City News
When it comes to printed circuit boards (PCBs), many people may not be familiar with them, but in the modern electronic industry system, PCBs serve as core components of electronic products, occupying an indispensable position. They are known as one of the three major components of the electronic information industry, alongside chips and panels, earning the title of “Mother of Electronic Products”.
In 2024, the CCID Consulting Integrated Circuit Industry Research Center released the “2024 China New PCB Industry Development Report and Top Ten Agglomeration Areas”, with Guangde City in Anhui ranking among them. How did this city, with a population of only 500,000, manage to break into the top ten in the niche field of printed circuit boards? What is the secret behind this? Recently, reporters visited the Guangde Economic Development Zone to uncover the mystery.
Overlooking Guangde Economic Development Zone
A printed circuit boardDriving industrial development with industry windfalls
In the summer, walking through the Guangde Economic Development Zone, factories line the roads in an orderly manner. According to reports, there are 892 enterprises in production within the park, of which 164 are high-tech enterprises, and 92 are large-scale enterprises in the electronic information industry, which has become one of the leading industries in the park.
At Chip Jun De (Anhui) Co., Ltd., factory manager Zhou Canbin holds a small IC substrate, stating that as a core material for chip packaging, the IC substrate primarily functions to protect the chip and provide an interface between the chip and external circuits, featuring high density and high precision. However, currently, 95% of IC substrates worldwide still rely on production from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and their work is focused on solving the domestic substitution challenge.
In May 2023, Chip Jun De signed a contract to establish operations in Guangde, and it has now entered the mass production phase, filling a critical gap in the semiconductor industry chain in Anhui Province. In 2024, Chip Jun De won first prize in the “Creating the Future” third Yangtze River Delta G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor Technology and Industry Innovation Competition, having signed the contract in May 2023.
“Guangde has obvious geographical advantages, located in the central area of the Yangtze River Delta, with convenient transportation and a relatively complete supporting electronic information industry and workforce, all of which are reasons for us to invest here,” Zhou Canbin said.
Data shows that driven by applications in artificial intelligence, servers and data storage, network communication, and automotive electronics, the global PCB industry has entered a new growth cycle, with the market size expected to reach $100 billion by 2030. Especially in advanced fields such as smartphones and new energy vehicles, the demand for high-end products like IC substrates has surged in recent years.
In 2010, the Guangde County Party Committee and County Government (now upgraded to a city) officially proposed the construction of a PCB industrial park, located in the northwest of the city’s economic development zone, with a special plan for 1,605 acres of PCB industrial park.
After fifteen years of accumulation, the future is bright. In 2024, the output value of the electronic information industry in the economic development zone exceeded 8.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.6%. From January to April 2025, the output value reached 3.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.3%. The PCB industry has gathered more than two-thirds of the enterprises in the province and 80% of the output value, receiving multiple honors such as the national-level characteristic industrial cluster for small and medium-sized enterprises, the green industrial base of the Chinese electronic circuit industry, and the provincial-level characteristic industrial cluster for counties. It has 34 high-tech enterprises, 22 specialized and innovative enterprises, and has authorized over 1,100 patents, forming a vertically integrated industrial chain of “copper-clad laminate – printed circuit board – packaging – electronic product application”.
Production workshop of Chip Jun De (Anhui) Co., Ltd.
A wastewater treatment plantAttracting external enterprises with sincerity
What kind of special “magnetism” does the economic development zone have that attracts enterprises from the Yangtze River Delta to build factories and produce here? During the interview, the story of a wastewater treatment plant was repeatedly mentioned by several business leaders.
Liu Hanlong, deputy general manager of Anhui Dayang Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., stated that due to environmental protection factors, the PCB industry has very high requirements for the treatment of production wastewater. If each enterprise builds its own wastewater treatment plant, it would significantly increase production costs, and enterprises would also have to allocate a lot of energy to handle production wastewater.
To alleviate the concerns of enterprises, the Guangde Economic Development Zone has specifically planned a 3,600-acre specialized park for the PCB industry, investing in the construction of a wastewater treatment plant with a daily processing capacity of 45,000 tons, a dedicated pipeline network, and an oasis solid waste treatment center, capable of processing 5,000 tons of solid waste daily, achieving a 90% wastewater recycling rate and a 100% harmless treatment rate for hazardous waste, transferring the environmental protection costs from enterprises to the government. This move is equivalent to giving external enterprises a “peace of mind” pill, allowing them to invest in Guangde with confidence.
A wastewater treatment plant has become the best advertisement, and creating an optimal business environment has also become the goal pursued by the Guangde Economic Development Zone. To allow enterprises to focus on research and production, the economic development zone has provided full-cycle services from enterprise settlement to policy support with “real money”.
“We have built 300,000 square meters of standardized electronic circuit factory buildings, and 190,000 square meters of Guangneng Zhigu Industrial Park, allowing small and micro PCB enterprises to directly ‘move in’, reducing their initial investment pressure,” said Zheng Bo, director of the Economic Development Bureau of the zone. The district has also innovated a model of “equipment financing leasing + factory construction on behalf of enterprises”, where the government connects financial institutions, allowing enterprises to reduce equipment procurement costs through monthly payments and free up funds for research and development. In 2023, the development zone received 15 million yuan in provincial-level digital transformation demonstration park funding, all of which was reinvested into the digital transformation of enterprises.
“Our company moved from Wenzhou to Guangde, and not only the factory equipment but also 90% of the employees came along,” said Yang Han, general manager of Guangde Yangsheng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. He also mentioned that after coming to Guangde, employees not only bought houses locally but also received active coordination from government departments to help their children attend school locally. These specific details reflect the excellent business environment in the area.
Workers operating equipment at Guangde Yangsheng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.
An internet platformDriving industrial breakthroughs through “digital transformation”
Like most industries, the PCB industry is also highly competitive, and Guangde is surrounded by strong competitors, with nearby regions like Yixing, Liyang, and Changxing having significant advantages. For instance, a single enterprise, Tianneng Group in Changxing County, has revenue exceeding 200 billion yuan. How to stand out in the fierce “involution”? The Guangde Economic Development Zone has carved out its own unique path—promoting industrial leap through digital transformation.
In 2017, Guangde City introduced Jiepei Group to provide a new model for the development of the printed circuit board industry. As a provincial-level industrial internet platform in Anhui, it can realize a complete process of “online ordering, platform sampling, and collaborative manufacturing”, where the “collaborative manufacturing” segment treats PCB enterprises as large production terminals, dispatching orders for collaborative production. Moreover, the platform connects 43 enterprises for energy consumption monitoring and implements digital diagnostics for 34 enterprises, even achieving digital recording and inspection of all factory equipment. This “platform-driven industry” model has also been recognized within Anhui Province.
In addition to digital upgrades, utilizing the “long board theory” to replace traditional scale competition is also one of the unique development paths to gain a foothold in fierce market competition. With the recent explosion of the new energy vehicle industry, the development zone focuses on common technology research between PCBs and automotive components as a set industrial development policy.
In 2023, Guangde Dongfeng Electronics Co., Ltd. showcased its independently developed high-performance ceramic-based copper-clad laminate (DBC), which can be widely used in new energy vehicles, intelligent machinery, medical equipment, and aerospace fields. “The government has always actively built a platform to establish communication channels between enterprises and target customers, organizing PCB enterprises to go to Hefei for production demand docking meetings multiple times, allowing enterprises to clarify their development positioning and next steps,” said Shen Haiping, chairman of Dongfeng Electronics.
In terms of talent cultivation, the economic development zone is also actively exploring the integration of government, industry, academia, and research, signing joint technology research cooperation agreements with 11 universities, including Hefei University of Technology and Anhui University, and promoting cooperation agreements between Xuancheng Electromechanical School and more than ten PCB enterprises to achieve “targeted delivery” of talent and technology.
During the interview, relevant department heads of the economic development zone stated that they will focus on strengthening core technology breakthroughs, promoting in-depth industrial development, and optimizing industrial ecological services from three aspects, accelerating the pace of high-end and intelligent transformation, seizing emerging markets such as medical electronics and low-altitude economy, and promoting the continuous growth and strengthening of the electronic information industry.
Source: Anhui Industry and Information Technology,Copyright belongs to the original author, the purpose of reprinting is to share more information, and does not represent the position of this account. If there are copyright issues, please contact the backend, and we will handle it as soon as possible.
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