European Printed Circuit Board market is analyzed to grow at a CAGR of 2.02% during the forecast period 2021-2026 to reach $17952.02 million. A printed circuit board or PCB is generally used for electrically connecting various electronic components be it capacitors, resistors, diodes and so on, and is considered to be the building block for modern electronic devices. Deployment of PCBs had proved essential in serving demanding application areas for various end-use industries be it consumer electronics, healthcare, automotive, and so on. Increasing shift towards supporting electric vehicles growth across European countries along with leveraging advanced technologies like AI or IoT have been considered as some of the prominent drivers for the growth of European Printed Circuit Board market. Moreover, rise of healthcare investments, growing consumption of consumer electronic products and many others are further analyzed to propel the need for PCBs in the long run.

The report: “European Printed Circuit Board Industry Outlook – Forecast (2021-2026)”, by IndustryARC covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the European Printed Circuit Board industry. 

By Board Type: Rigid 1-2 Sided, Standard Multilayer, HDI/Microvia/Build-up, IC Substrate, Flexible Circuits, Rigid Flex, Others

By Materials Used: Copper, Tin, Nickel, Iron, Lead, Aluminum, Zinc, Silver, Gold, Palladium, Bismuth, Chromium, Others

By Components: Capacitors, Diodes, Integrated Circuits, Resistors, Others

By End Users: Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Industrial Electronics, Consumer Electronics, Maritime Transport, Healthcare & Pharmaceutical

By Country: Nordics, U.K, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Benelux, Switzerland, Austria, Others.

By components, European Printed Circuit Board market is segmented under Capacitors, Diodes, Integrated Circuits, Resistors and Others. Integrated Circuits had dominated the European Printed Circuit Board market with $2260 million in 2020, analyzed to grow significantly with a CAGR of 2.75% during the forecast period 2021-2026. Integrated circuits (IC) can be referred as an assembly of electronic components like resistors, capacitors, transistors and so on in miniature form fabricated upon a semiconductor substrate. Owing to its high efficiency and reliability, devices ranging from computer, cell phones, televisions, digital watches and many others have been highly utilizing the small-sized ICs within PCB boards. Factors such as rising penetration of smartphones, growing demand towards portable wireless devices as well as investments towards electric vehicles and so on can be considered as some of the vital factors impacting the need for integrated circuits across the European PCB market. Various leading companies including Ford, Volkswagen, Porsche and many others have continued their investments towards supporting the development of electric automotives within the European countries, which are bound to propel the need for integrated circuits in the long run. 

By End Users, the European Printed Circuit Board market is segmented under automotive, consumer electronics, industrial electronics, healthcare & pharmaceutical, aerospace & defense as well as maritime transport. Industrial Electronics had dominated the European Printed Circuit Board market with $6564.48 million in 2020, and is analyzed to grow with the highest CAGR of 2.78% during the forecast period 2021-2026. Printed circuit boards or PCBs serve as an integral part of high-powered industrial applications including transformers, digital meters, wireless communication devices, power monitoring, visual signaling devices and many others. Due to installation of various electronic components within PCBs, they are capable of controlling as well as operating a number of mechanisms or processes be it packaging, transportation, and so on across different industry verticals like process industries, chemicals and many others. In addition, PCBs have gained wide popularity across industrial applications due to being unaffected from vibrating machinery, exposure to harmful chemicals or substances, and so on while helping the manufacturers to optimize plant operational efficiency with increasing industrial automation. According to International Federation Robotics, the European operational stock for industrial robots had reached 580,000 units in 2019, showing an increase of 7% from previous year, with Germany, Italy, France and U.K being the top contributors. This shows growing adoption of industrial robots in order to increase automation across various industries within European countries, thereby affecting the demand for PCBs. 

Germany had accounted for the largest share of $3633.9 Million in 2020, followed by U.K and France, and is analyzed to grow significantly with a CAGR of 3.30% in the European Printed Circuit Board market during the forecast period 2021-2026. Factors like growing investments towards autonomous vehicles or electric vehicles, rising demand towards consumer electronic products and so on can be considered as some of the prime factors which had attributed towards the market growth of PCB in Germany. Presence of some of the key leaders such as Schweizer Electronik AG, Wurth Electronik GmbH & Co. KG and many others have also helped in boosting the growth of PCBs across the country. High investments towards semiconductor chip manufacturing as well as rising demand towards medical equipment or devices are set to create new opportunities for the PCB within the country. In 2020, German government had placed several orders with different manufacturers at a short notice in order to ensure supply of medical ventilators for COVID-19 patients within the country. In response to this, Wurth Electronik announced about supplying PCBs required for rapid manufacturing of intensive care as well as mobile ventilators from its Germany based production sites. Owing to growing demands of ventilators in the country, the move towards PCB supply from key market vendors had eventually created a positive impact in the growth of PCB for the medical sector. In 2021, one of the leading automotive companies, Ford announced about investing an amount of $1 billion for building a new electric vehicle manufacturing facility in Cologne, Germany. 

Technological advancements such as artificial intelligence or IoT acts as one of the major drivers and is further analyzed to drive the growth of European Printed Circuit Board market during the forecast period. Introduction of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) or IoT have proved beneficial for the manufacturers towards designing, verification as well as testing of PCBs within low costs and shorter time intervals. Leveraging AI helps in determining the component placement more accurately and precisely, improving PCB performance reducing assembling time in comparison to conventional designed PCBs. With growing advancements, there is significant demand towards compact sized PCB designs, thereby creating wider adoption of AI by the manufacturers to offer a higher degree of accuracy during smaller component placement. Moreover, utilization of such advanced technologies helps in offering customization benefits, optimum power efficiency and so on. In 2021, a British company, Novocomms announced about the launch of a flexible printed circuit board antenna, named FPCB LTE 4G, as an addition to their patented multi-channel antennas for Internet of Things (IoT) sector. This development of flexible PCB was done to offer a fully customizable cable which can be adapted for responding low, mid or high bands, while serving growing demands for IoT devices particularly across medical sector. 

Growing shift towards electric vehicles in Europe can be considered as one of the major driving factors impacting the growth of European Printed Circuit Board market. With the move towards supporting the shift to electrically powered cars or vehicles across several European countries, the demand for PCBs are tend to rise owing to serving demanding automotive applications. Development of electric or autonomous vehicles involves the need for PCBs in application areas like ADAS systems, infotainment systems and battery control systems along with other intelligent devices. Since PCBs are helpful in optimizing driving efficiency or battery management systems, making it one of the essential factors for adoption in electric vehicles. In electric vehicles, there is significant deployment of various sensors, transmitters, diodes and so on which requires precised and accurate control for optimizing safety standards, reducing excessive battery consumption with others, thereby affecting the need for printed circuit boards or PCBs. According to European Automobile Manufacturers Association, hybrid electric vehicles contributed to about 18.4% of total passenger car sales in the EU, additionally showing the growing demand towards electrically chargeable cars. Since the electric vehicles primarily constitute of motor controller circuitry built on PCBs, this growth of electric car sales within European Union is bound to drive the need for automotive PCBs in the long run. In 2019, European governments announced about forming an alliance with companies in order to develop next-generation batteries for electric vehicles through an investment of around 5-6 billion Euros (USD 6.7 billion). This initiative was taken by German and French government for helping European automakers to ramp up electric vehicle production, thereby creating a positive impact on the growth of PCBs.

Stringent governmental regulations like European RoHS directive compliance for the manufacturers can be considered as one of the major factors impeding the market growth of PCB across European region. Since manufacturing of PCBs generate massive amounts of wastes which cannot be recycled, this act as a major factor adversely impacting its market growth in Europe. PCB manufacturers need to mandatorily comply by the RoHS directives set by the government which aims at restricting the use of specific hazardous materials like lead, cadmium, chromium and others while producing various electronic components used in PCB. This regulatory compliance becomes highly essential for the manufacturing companies to ensure distribution across European countries. Additionally, hazardous waste disposal regulations imposed by regulatory bodies of Europe also tends to adversely impact the market growth of PCBs. In accordance with the waste disposal regulations, manufacturers need to enhance the waste disposal processes, while raising additional production costs, eventually hampering the market growth towards PCB electronic components within Europe.

Product launches, acquisitions, and partnerships are key strategies adopted by players in the European Printed Circuit Board market. The key players in the European Printed Circuit Board market include Fineline Ltd., ICAPE Group, NCAB Group Corporation, Schweizer Electronic AG, Wurth Elektronik GmbH & Co. KG, AT & S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik AG, Somasis, Mektec Europe AG, Unimicron (United Microelectronics Corporation), Elvia Group among others.