PCB Sales MasteryAlteraFlex Circuits
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Module 08 1 min read

The PCB Industry Landscape

The global market, the supply chain, the major players, and the four biggest tailwinds right now.

Global Market Snapshot

  • Global PCB market: roughly $80–90 billion/year (mid-2020s)
  • Growth: 4–6% annually overall; faster in HDI, automotive, EV, and 5G segments
  • China: ~55% of global production
  • Taiwan, South Korea, Japan: another ~25%
  • North America: ~4%
  • Europe: ~2%
  • Rest of world: ~14%

Segments of the Supply Chain

  • Design houses / EDA tools — Companies that design boards (Altium, Cadence, Mentor)
  • Bare PCB fabricators — Make the empty boards
  • Component distributors — Digi-Key, Mouser, Arrow, Avnet, Future Electronics — they sell individual parts
  • EMS / Contract Manufacturers (CMs) — Assemble PCBAs for OEMs (Foxconn, Jabil, Flex, Celestica, Sanmina at the top; thousands of smaller shops below)
  • OEMs — The brand that owns the end product (Apple, GE, Tesla, Medtronic, etc.)

A typical OEM buys design from internal engineers, sources components from distributors, sends Gerbers to a bare PCB fab, ships the bare boards to a CM along with the components, and the CM returns finished assemblies. Increasingly, customers want a one-stop shop that does fab + assembly + box build to reduce headaches.

  • Reshoring — DoD, automotive, and medical are pulling work back to North America.
  • EV growth — Massive demand for high-power, heavy-copper boards.
  • 5G and AI infrastructure — High-layer-count, high-frequency boards in data centers.
  • Miniaturization — Smaller, denser boards (HDI everywhere).
  • Mil-spec / "trusted supplier" requirements — Some programs require U.S.-only fabrication.
  • Component shortages have eased but supply chain caution remains — customers want suppliers who manage inventory, not just brokers.

Major Players in North America (Examples)

Bare PCB fabrication: TTM Technologies, Summit Interconnect, Sanmina, Advanced Circuits, Sierra Circuits, Saturn Electronics

EMS / Contract Manufacturers: Jabil, Flex, Celestica, Benchmark Electronics, Sanmina, NEO Tech, IEC Electronics, plus thousands of regional CMs

You don't need to memorize this list, but be aware: many of your prospects already work with these companies, and you may compete or partner with them.

What you really need to remember
  • China dominates manufacturing, but North American demand is real and growing.
  • The supply chain has multiple players: design, bare fab, components, assembly, OEM. Know where YOUR shop fits.
  • Reshoring, EV, 5G, and AI are the four biggest tailwinds.

Practice questions

1

Roughly how big is the global PCB market?

2

Which of these is NOT one of the four biggest tailwinds for PCB demand?

3

Digi-Key, Mouser, and Arrow are examples of what?

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