This year's HKPCA (Hong Kong Printed Circuit Association) trade fair took place in Shenzhen from December 4 to 6, focusing on high-end AI PCBs, high-performance materials and smart automation. The theme of the accompanying technical presentations was 'AI Powers the Future'.
More than 600 exhibitors from the entire PCB and LP assembly supply chain were represented, including over 100 new exhibitors. Unlike electronica and productronica, the HKPCA does not have a biennial separation between PCBs and suppliers, but only designated zones. However, there are also obligatory technical presentations. At electronica in Munich, many visitors were overwhelmed by the large number of booths of Chinese exhibitors, especially in Hall C6, as booth after booth under the 'CHINA' banner could be found in a very confined space.[*] To explain this, the Chinese trade fair representative granted special conditions, especially to first-time exhibitors, who then had to exhibit under the banner. Most exhibitors also used the smallest exhibition space of 3×4 m.
Exhibition stands
Exhibition stand of the Rogers Corporation
TTM Printed Circuit Board booth
China covers more than half of global PCB demand
The HKPCA trade fair was still well attended, but no longer has the influx of visitors it had before COVID, as the competing CPCA (China Printed Circuit Association) trade fairs in Shenzhen and Shanghai are at least as large. China's slowing economic growth is also making itself felt.
As Chinese PCB manufacturers cover more than half of global demand, almost all trade fair visitors are Chinese, with a few exceptions. For this reason, even European and American exhibitors or their Chinese representatives had almost exclusively Chinese stand personnel.
In general, the exhibition stands were located in relatively large exhibition areas, which often even included plenty of seating for discussions with visitors.
Surprisingly, not even 10% of the approximately 160 Chinese PCB manufacturers exhibiting at electronica were to be found in Shenzhen. And even the many Chinese base material manufacturers were hardly represented.
Most of the exhibitors were, of course, Chinese companies that are unknown in Europe and will probably remain so due to the large domestic market. The photos in this report are therefore only intended to give PLUS readers an overview of the largest Chinese PCB trade fair, without going into detail about individual exhibiting companies and their product portfolios.
www.hkpcashow.org/en,
References
[*] See PLUS 12/2024, p. 1471.
