Photocircuits and Global Brands Manufacturing Group announce new venture near Shanghai

Photocircuits Corporation, the largest privately held printed circuit board manufacturer in the world, has announced a new venture with Global Brands Manufacture Group in China.

This plant, completed in 2004 in Kunshan (near Shanghai), Jiangsu Province, China, occupies floor space of approximately 70,000 square meters. The specific terms of the venture were not disclosed. GBM will be investing an undisclosed amount into the new venture while Photocircuits will be providing operational, quality, technical controls and systems along with marketing and sales.

Situated on a 409-acre campus in the KunShan Economic and Technical Development Zone in the heart of China's newest printed circuit manufacturing region, the factory's current manufacturing capacity is 400,000 square feet of imaged area per month.   Three planned expansions over the next eighteen months will increase capacity to 1.5 million square feet per month.

This venture will further facilitate the "One Stop Shop" capability that Photocircuits offers to its expanding and diverse customer base. Photocircuits' customers will be able to deal with their local PC sales and technical service team for protos, quick turns and high performance products built at the Glen Cove, NY facility and volume production produced at the new PC ASIA factory in Kunshan. Photocircuits has an extensive technical resource team in China that speaks Mandarin who will be responsible for quality audits, process controls and systems.   

Markets currently served include information technology, medical systems, automotive systems, and communications infrastructure.  The factory produces plated-through parts ranging in layer count from two to sixteen.  Surface finishes include OSP, HASL, electrolytic gold, immersion gold, immersion silver, and immersion tin.  HDI products will become available during the second quarter of 2005.  Factory output ships to customers in Asia, Europe, and North America.