PCB buyers struggles with long delivery times

The PCB delivery shortage is partly due to the limited availability of PCB laminates. In turn this is due to increased copper deficiency, something that happens in most economic upturns. This has resulted in a sudden price increase for the laminate. The price increase in China is around 20% and in extreme cases 25%. This price increase is not reflected fully in the total PCB price. If the laminate price in China increases by 20% the PCB price tends to increase approximately 15%, a source told Evertiq. It is also more likely that price increases are higher from Chinese manufacturers than from European manufacturers, the source noted. PCB delivery shortage is not the biggest problem that electronics buyers today are suffering from. The lack of components allow buyers to wait even longer after the PCBs have been delivered. Several semiconductor giants have delivery times around 20 weeks at present and 3 days just to get the components out from the warehouses, according to an electronics purchaser. It has happened several times that many component manufacturers have not prioritized to recognize purchasing orders. Several European PCB manufacturers told Evertiq that they are running on full production at the moment. On the PCB-trading side, the average delivery time on trading volumes from PCB distributors is 5-6 weeks. Just a few months ago, the delivery time was 3-4 weeks.