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APRIL 2021 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 91 mainland manufacturers, such as Shengyi and KingBoard, took the lead in raising prices, which drove other manufacturers on the main- land to follow suit. As the production capacity of Taiwan manufacturers has not yet reached its full capacity, Taiwan initially took a wait- and-see attitude. e Taiwan manufacturers did not start to raise prices until late Novem- ber when the main manufacturers were back in full production. On the whole, the main manufacturers in the industry are in full production and focused on on-time delivery. Some manufacturers in dif- ferent regions have increased prices to hedge against their own cost pressures. In addition, manufacturers with plans to expand are still looking to take orders but have increased pric- es to brace for any shortfall, while manufactur- ers without expansion plans will be more ac- tive. We see that Shengyi Technology and oth- er manufacturers, who have no significant pro- duction expansion plans in 2021, will still look to increase prices, while other manufacturers will follow up at the right time according to their own situation. Overall, the trend of the industry will still be to increase prices. Prices will continue to increase in the first quarter of 2021. According to our research, since the end of November 2020, the mainstream manufac- turers have basically achieved full production and full sales. us, short-term demand from PCB manufacturers remains strong in Q1 2021. How long these prices continue to increase de- pends on whether PCB shops maintain de- mand. Based on the current orders, we believe it may reach a short-term peak around the lu- nar new year [Editor's note: lunar new year for 2021 occurred on February 12.] The highest price increase rate may exceed 20%. e key to judging the price increases is choosing when to look at them. Due to the pressure on the performance of CCL enter- prises in Q3, we chose July 2020 as the base pe- riod to observe the trend of raw materials. Up until now, LME copper has increased by more than 19%; epoxy resin has increased by more than 50%; and glass fiber cloth has increased by more than 15%. Taking the median increase as the average cost increase in that time peri- od, the average cost increase of thick copper Figure 4: Sorting out the stages of price hikes. (Source: Wind, Zhongtai Securities Research Institute)