With the reality being that there is no “drop-in” replacement for the manufacturing capacity and technology of China, what’s a board buyer to do with all of today’s PCB tariff challenges?
Here are some suggestions:
If your boards are coming from China now, make sure your company is paying the tariff as it relates to the Ex Works price of the PCB.
This means the tariff only applies to the cost of the product at time of export.
The cost of your supplier’s overhead, the freight to get it to your dock, and their profit are not subject to any tariff.
If your company is used to a deliver price for bare boards, your company should expect a tariff rate that is around 15% less than what is the published rate.
Talk to those in our industry and to other buyers to ask what they are doing.
If working with a PCB broker, ask that broker to offer solutions to offset the current tariff rate, to include looking at other manufacturing nations.
Get an NDA in place and ask for references on that potential supplier.
Quote out your larger runners to include freight costs. If the order is large enough, ask for tooling costs to be waived.
Ask for samples to be built and, if acceptable, blend those boards of the new supplier with that of your present supplier.
Until a new supplier is established, there’s no need to move any small or one-off orders as you will spend more time and energy doing that than the cost of the tariff itself.
While you are doing all of this, remember it is very hard to disengage from China PCB manufacturing completely.
If the tariffs remain as they are now, then it makes sense to invest your time and energy in finding another supplier outside of China.