Copper-clad laminate (CCL) and the electronic glass cloth that goes into it are set for another round of price increases of roughly 10% to 15%, effective in November 2026. A Commercial Times report published on October 22, and relayed by Chinese PCB industry media the following day, puts the exact figure at the discretion of each supplier and product specification.
The cause is shortage rather than demand growth alone. Thin glass cloth styles 2116, 1080 and 1078 are the tightest items in the chain, and the limit sits upstream of the cloth itself: weaving loom capacity. This is the same shortage that drove the August 2026 glass cloth surge и Kingboard’s late-August prepreg notice. What changes in November is the breadth of the increase, not the underlying constraint.
What Is Being Repriced in November
The reported adjustment is a supply-chain survey figure, not a published price list. Buyers should expect quotes to move by specification and by supplier rather than by a single industry-wide percentage.
| Пункт | Reported change | Timing | What drives it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copper-clad laminate (CCL) | About 10%–15% | November 2026 | Upstream cloth and resin cost pass-through |
| Electronic-grade glass cloth | About 10%–15% | November 2026 | Persistent shortage of thin styles |
| 2116, 1080 and 1078 thin cloth | Acute shortage, allocation | Ongoing | Loom output, not yarn supply |
| 7628 thick cloth | Comparatively available | 2027 capacity additions | New capacity aimed at thick styles |
The thin styles on that list are not niche products. They are the standard dielectrics in high-density interconnect (HDI) builds and in high-layer-count rigid boards, where thin prepreg is needed to hold overall thickness in check.
Thin Cloth Is the Bottleneck, and Looms Are the Reason
As laminate makers move capacity toward higher-value product lines, general electronic-grade glass cloth has been squeezed out of the mix. The demand for that general-grade cloth did not go away; it simply lost its place in the queue. The result is a market where the cheap, ordinary grades are the ones that are hardest to buy.
The physical constraint is the weaving loom. Yarn supply is not the limiting factor. Equipment is. Supply-chain estimates put global capacity for the relevant looms at roughly 2,400 units a year, possibly rising to about 3,600 units a year in 2027. Those figures are order-book estimates, and an order is not a delivery. Each machine still has to be installed, qualified and ramped before it produces saleable cloth.
| Supply variable | Reported position | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Global loom capacity | About 2,400 units a year | Ток |
| Potential loom capacity | About 3,600 units a year | 2027, subject to delivery and installation |
| China Jushi new glass cloth capacity | Mainly 7628 thick cloth | Mass production expected 2027 |
| Market easing | Not before the second half of 2027 | 2027 H2 to 2028, conditions dependent |
Nan Ya: Buyers Have Run Out of Choices
Nan Ya Plastics told the Commercial Times that supply is currently insufficient. Many peers have shifted strategy toward high-end product lines while general-grade demand remains large, and supply has not kept pace with that product-mix shift. The company described the high-end migration as clear while the general-product gap persists, with the imbalance unresolved.
The shortage has also changed how customers buy. In the early rounds, buyers preferred suppliers with complete product lines that could cover several specifications from one source. Now, with supply tighter still, the market has reached a point where there is little left to choose between, and the purchasing priority has narrowed to securing material and holding delivery dates.
Twelve Rounds This Year, and a 300% Move in 1080 Cloth
The same survey reports that Kingboard, described as the leading CCL producer in mainland China, has now raised prices twelve times in 2026. That count extends the nine rounds reported through July in our earlier CCL price coverage.
For 1080 E-glass cloth, the cumulative increase from this cycle’s low to its high is reported at roughly 300%. A move of that size on a single cloth style is a useful warning for anyone reading laminate quotes as if they were stable reference prices.
The survey also notes that some specifications are scarce enough that abnormal quotes are appearing through unofficial channels. Buyers offered laminate or prepreg well below the prevailing market level should treat it as a traceability question first and a price question second, and ask for brand, lot and storage history before accepting material into a production build.
Why Jushi’s New Capacity Will Not Close the Thin-Cloth Gap
China Jushi is expanding glass cloth capacity, and on paper that sounds like the answer to a cloth shortage. It is not, at least not for the styles that matter most right now. The new output is mainly 7628 thick cloth, with mass production expected in 2027.
7628 and the thin styles are different products, run on different equipment and different yarns. Additional thick-cloth capacity eases the thick-cloth balance. It does very little for 2116, 1080 or 1078, which are the styles actually constraining thin-laminate supply. Even as new lines come online, relief for thin cloth is expected to stay limited.
What This Means for PCB Buyers
Material cost is being pushed down the chain from cloth to laminate to board fabrication, and from board fabrication to the assembly program. Four practical steps follow from the November timing.
- Reconfirm quote validity now. Ask your fabricator to state how long the laminate portion of a quote holds, and re-price open programs before the November adjustment lands rather than after.
- Check whether your stackup depends on thin cloth. HDI, high-layer-count and thin-dielectric builds are the exposed ones. Review the HDI stackup и FR-4 material choices early enough to consider an alternative construction if the schedule is tight.
- Secure allocation for repeat builds. For production programs, a blanket order with scheduled releases is more defensible than a series of spot purchases in a market where delivery dates are the scarce item.
- Expect lead time to matter more than price. In a shortage, the quote that is 8% cheaper but has no confirmed material date is the more expensive option once the line stops.
For programs already in fabrication, the more useful question is not whether laminate costs more, but whether the current release schedule still matches available material. Our engineering and procurement teams can confirm current laminate lead times and material availability for a specific stackup, and review whether a construction change would protect the delivery date. Send your Gerber, BOM and stackup for a current quote.
Outlook
Supply-chain assessments place meaningful relief in the second half of 2027 at the earliest, extending into 2028, and that timing depends on equipment delivery, new capacity actually starting up, and how quickly the product mix shifts. Because high-end demand keeps growing, even a larger supply base may leave the market tight, and material cost pressure is expected to keep moving downstream to laminate and PCB makers in the meantime.
For buyers, the working assumption for the next several quarters should be a thin-cloth market that stays tight, with periodic repricing, and lead time as the variable that decides whether a build ships on schedule.