Kingboard Laminates Holdings Ltd

On August 4, the A-share PCB concept sector rallied across the board. Zhongjing Electronics hit its daily limit up, while Dongshan Precision, Shengyi Technology, Shennan Circuits, Dongcai Technology, and Tongguan Copper Foil all rose more than 5%. Newly listed Jialichuang surged over 177% intraday on its debut. The rally was directly catalyzed by rising upstream substrate costs. A Citi research report shows that electronic fabric prices recorded their largest single-month increase this year in August, with average prices for the 1080, 2116, and 7628 series rising 17% to 18%, and cumulative gains this year reaching 118% to 165%. AI power supplies are squeezing traditional supply, and costs are being passed on to copper-clad laminates. The spot price including tax for laminates from industry leader Kingboard Laminates may rise another 10% to 15% in August, with the year-to-date average price nearly doubling. China Securities believes that, driven by AI, the global PCB industry is entering a new upward cycle. In 2025, the PCB market space for GPU and ASIC servers has already exceeded 40 billion yuan, and it will surpass 90 billion yuan in 2026, doubling the growth rate. However, capacity expansion is constrained by multiple factors, and the supply-demand balance is unlikely to reverse in the short term.

The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong closed up 124.97 points, or 0.48 percent, at 26,009.40 points, as investors eased concerns over the Middle East situation after US President Donald Trump announced the cancellation of plans to attack Iran and said talks would take place today, raising hopes that tensions will de-escalate and lead to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Tencent shares surged 3.20 percent, while Meituan rose 1.03 percent and Kingboard Laminates gained 1.97 percent. Kuaishou jumped 3.02 percent, Minmax soared 7.20 percent, and Lenovo surged 3.69 percent. The market also got a boost from signals by Hong Kong's finance minister that the government is likely to raise its GDP growth forecast for 2026 within this month, after the economy proved stronger than expected.

MLS's wholly owned subsidiary Xinyu MLS Electronics announced that it will raise prices across all PCB products by 10% to 15% effective July 7, 2026. This marks the company's third PCB price increase in a short period, following a 20% hike on June 12 and another 10% on June 17. The company cited sustained sharp cost increases for copper clad laminates driven by upstream raw material glass cloth, along with tight supply, and warned that板材 will become even scarcer in the third and fourth quarters. The wave of price hikes across the PCB supply chain continues to spread. Major copper clad laminate maker Kingboard Laminates issued its sixth price increase notice of the year, raising prices for FR-4 products by 15%, CEM-1 and 22F by 10%, and PP by 15% for orders placed from that day onward, with copper foil processing fees also adjusted upward. Further upstream, the electronic glass cloth segment is raising prices in tandem. Taiwan-based electronic glass cloth maker Fulltech Fiber Glass will implement a uniform 30% price increase for standard E-glass electronic cloth and a 15% increase for low-dielectric-constant electronic cloth starting July 1, 2026. Industry participants believe that downstream demand from AI servers and other applications continues to grow, while upstream capacity expansion cycles are long. Global delivery lead times for core equipment from Toyota Industries loom have reached 18 to 24 months, with orders booked out to 2028 and beyond. The supply-demand gap is expected to persist, and the electronic glass cloth price hike trend may extend through the end of the year.

On July 7, China's three major stock indices opened lower across the board. The humanoid robot concept was active, with Duoli Technology hitting the daily limit up in intraday trading, and Wuzhou New Spring, Tuopu Group, Leaderdrive, and Siling Intelligent Drive rising in sympathy. In news, the 2026 World Robot Conference will be held in Beijing from August 19 to 23. The PCB concept rebounded amid volatility, with Well-Go, Tianhai Electronics, and Nuode New Materials hitting the daily limit up. Copper-clad laminate leader Kingboard Laminates issued a price increase notice, raising prices for all FR-4 and PP by 15 percent, and CEM-1 and 22F by 10 percent. The rare earth permanent magnet sector strengthened at the open, with Zhongke Sanhuan hitting the daily limit up, as the rare earth market saw mainstream product prices rise driven by supply tightening. The computing power chip concept surged, with Muxi shares rising over 15 percent. Intel raised prices for some consumer-grade Core Ultra processors and Xeon server processors, with high-end Xeon server products seeing increases of 7 to 12 percent. Gaming stocks fluctuated higher, with Xinghui Entertainment rising over 14 percent. A total of 171 online games received publication licenses in June, an increase from the previous month.