Europe dreams of sovereignty – but its PCB industry is disappearing in plain sight

But sovereignty is not a single component. It is a stack.

Europe’s political narrative is built on the idea that if we strengthen wafer production, strategic autonomy will naturally follow. But chips do not float. They need packaging, substrates, and above all, PCBs. Without a domestic PCB manufacturing base, “autonomy” becomes a slogan rather than a strategy.

The numbers tell a story we refuse to read

Dieter Weiss (Data4PCB) has been documenting the slow erosion of Europe’s PCB industry for years, and the 2024 data is as bleak as ever.

According to the data, Europe lost another 3.9% of PCB manufacturing revenue. Headcount shrank by 500 people – on top of years of decline. Total European PCB revenue: EUR 1.735 billion, which is now under 2% of global output. There are now fewer than 180 active PCB factories remaining.

Adding to this, China now supplies about 65% of Europe’s imported PCBs, as per data from the IPC.

This is not alarmism; these are the facts.

Meanwhile, several European PCB manufacturers have shut down in the past year. TLT-PCB in Lithuania is a welcome exception – the first new PCB plant in Europe in two decades –  but one green shoot does not mean the soil is healthy.

Europe’s mismatched import rules accelerate the decline

Here is the part that is hardest to explain to anyone outside the industry: European PCB manufacturers pay up to 6.5% import duties on essential raw materials. But finished PCBs imported from China face zero import duties.

This unfortunate — or maybe unjust — reality has been known for years. Not only to European PCB manufacturers, but to policymakers as well. The issue was formally raised as a Priority Written Question to the European Commission in July 2023, which stated plainly:

“It is in the European interest to reduce these dependencies for the sake of de-risking and to strengthen the EU’s strategic autonomy. However, the Union’s current customs tariffs undermine this policy objective.”

The question asked what should have been a straightforward thing: What is the Commission’s assessment of the impact of its current tariffs on domestic PCB production?

The answer, however, was far less straightforward.

Instead of addressing the core asymmetry, the Commission pointed to its ongoing “dialogue” with industry and noted that PCBs, semiconductors and passive components fall under the WTO Information Technology Agreement (ITA) –  and are therefore tariff-free.

What it never answered was: Why are raw materials tariffed while finished PCBs are not?

This makes no industrial policy sense.

The consequences are visible across the region. European PCB manufacturers are forced to absorb additional costs before they even begin production, while imported finished boards arrive duty-free.

The result is predictable. Many manufacturers have shifted part of their business toward trading and brokering – importing the same boards they once produced themselves, in order to survive. In the short term, this keeps the books balanced. In the long term, it undercuts domestic manufacturing capacity.

It is hard to blame them. The policy framework rewards this behaviour. What is harder to understand is why policymakers tolerate a framework that actively undermines the “strategic autonomy” they claim to defend.

We’ve seen what fragile supply chains really mean

The pandemic made Europe’s dependencies painfully visible. The semiconductor shortage exposed every hidden choke-point. And the recent challenges surrounding Nexperia show how geopolitics can turn an “open global supply chain” into a vulnerability overnight.

Yet, even after these lessons, political attention remains focused on the glamorous part of the value chain – the fabs, the nanometres. 

Even if Europe solves its “chip problem,” it will still be exposed. Because, say it again: chips don’t float.

Europe cannot afford to ignore PCBs

This industry does not need slogans. It needs a level playing field, predictable policy, and the recognition that PCB manufacturing is not a relic – it is a critical capability. 

The industry cannot rely on policymakers – clearly.

But we can at least acknowledge that a supply chain does not start and end with semiconductors. And right now, European PCB manufacturing is hanging on by a thread –  supported by companies that continue to invest, innovate and adapt despite a framework that disadvantages them.

Supporting your local producer is not protectionism. It is self-preservation.

If Europe is serious about strategic autonomy, then the path forward is painfully simple: Stop treating PCB production as an afterthought.