PCB Industry Printed Circuit Board (PCB) market analysis: China's dominance is threatened

China's been dominating the global printed circuit board (PBC) industry since 2006. Now, the U.S.' shift in foreign policy threatens China's role as the main driving force in the global PCB industry. In this article, we look at where the PCB market is and where it's headed.

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In 1980 North America, Europe, and Japan shared 80 percent of the global printed circuit board (PCB) production. Meanwhile, the share of these regions stands at less than 15 percent. While China in 1980 barely held a 2 percent share of the market, it had secured an astonishing 54 percent of it in 2018.

For a long time, China's industrial growth seemed to have no end. Now, it does, however, look like the trend is coming to an abrupt halt. One significant factor does speak for that no other market will threaten China's current share of the market: no other market has a supply chain even remotely as complete as China. Europe and America lost their supply chains the minute they outsourced most production to Asia. To rebuild local production facilities and expertise in these markets would require time, great effort, and huge budgets.