IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
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56 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2026 A M E R I CA N M A D E A DVO CACY While Congress Debates, America's PCB Competitors Invest Billions T he story of offshoring is all too familiar in the elec- tronics industry. For decades, PCB manufac- turing shifted overseas, taking advantage of foreign subsidies, making it difficult for U.S. companies to compete. America once boasted more than 2,000 PCB shops. Today, that number has shrunk to less than 140. This is not sim- ply the marketplace at work. As I have said repeatedly to our elect- ed officials in Washington, American companies are not losing to their foreign com- petitors; they are losing to foreign governments. This did not happen overnight. Asian competi- tors, especially China, have directed their industrial policy toward market dominance. American business tends to focus on the next quarterly earn- ings call while our competi- tion focuses on the next decade. Because of an industrial policy that includes production subsidies, state- backed tax incen- tives, and special economic zones, China now controls more than 60% of the PCB market. China's designs to control supply chains don't stop at its border. In just the past five years, China has invested almost $2 billion in Thai- land and another $310 million in Vietnam. Over the same period the U.S. invest- ment in PCB production was $118 million. Almost all of this was through the Defense Production Act (DPA). Understanding the critical nature of PCBs, BY DAV I D S C H I L D, P C BA A