KB LAMINATES (01888) has seen its share price nearly double this year. At the time of writing, the stock rose 7.89% to HK$26.80, with a turnover of HK$682 million.

According to reports, three major high-end copper clad laminate (CCL) suppliers, including Taiwan Union Technology Corporation, have recently begun communicating price increases to customers. Among them, Taiwan Union Technology has formally notified customers that it will raise CCL prices starting April 25, with increases for some product series reaching 20% to 40%. Other suppliers have announced they will initiate a new round of price adjustments for high-end materials in the second quarter, with increases of around 10%, primarily targeting high-end applications such as AI servers and network switches.

Changjiang Securities pointed out that this round of price adjustments is driven by both rising costs and increasing demand. On the cost side, the price of electronic yarn G75 has risen to RMB 11,500–12,700 per ton, an increase of approximately RMB 800 per ton compared to the previous period. Inventories of electronic fabric at both fabric manufacturers and downstream CCL producers have fallen to historically low levels, while orders for CCL remain strong, providing a solid foundation for price increases. On the demand side, AI servers have led to a surge in demand for high-layer, high-frequency, and high-speed PCBs. The CCL value per AI server is 3 to 5 times that of traditional servers, and the supply-demand gap for high-end CCL continues to widen.