Dennis Dahlgren

Two months ago, at Evertiq Expo Zürich, Nikolaos Florous left little room for optimism. Tight memory market conditions would persist, he said — and things would likely get worse before they got better.

During Evertiq Expo Berlin, in4ma's Dieter Weiss and Maraike Haas, alongside EMSNOW's Eric Miscoll, had just presented five years of data showing Asia lapping Europe in EMS growth. Off stage, they went further.

New data from in4ma and EMSNOW puts the global EMS and ODM industry at USD 820 billion for 2025 – and Europe's share of that figure is shrinking in relative terms even as the continent's largest players post revenue growth.

In an interview with Evertiq, Didrik Bech, board member of PCB supplier Confidee, described how the AI infrastructure boom is creating an unprecedented demand for materials, resulting in supply shortages that could reshape market conditions across several European industries.

As material shortages push lead times for advanced printed circuit boards towards 2028, four-year-old PCB supplier Confidee has built its strategy around the opposite of locking customers into rigid commitments: complete transparency and a clear policy allowing customers to cancel or rebalance production without damaging the relationship. That is according to board member Didrik Bech.

The PCB industry's material shortage is no longer confined to advanced laminates. According to a market update from Norwegian PCB supplier Confidee, the shortage has now spread to standard FR-4 and thicker copper-clad laminates – and conditions are not expected to ease through 2026 or into 2027.

The gap between how long electronics manufacturers need their products to last and how long component makers are willing to keep producing them is widening. For industries like aerospace, medical and defence – where a product can be in service for twenty or thirty years – the shift toward consumer-driven semiconductor lifecycles is creating a slow-moving crisis that is only now getting the attention it deserves.

A Chinese court has ordered the freezing of equity interests in five Nexperia subsidiaries in China, valued at approximately CNY 2.14 billion, approximately EUR 274 million. The order was obtained by Wingtech, Nexperia's Chinese parent, in connection with an ongoing lawsuit seeking CNY 8 billion in damages.

Labour unions representing nearly two-thirds of Micron Technology's Taiwan workforce are threatening to strike unless the US memory chip maker changes how it distributes profits to employees, Reuters reports. More than 80% of union members who took part in an internal survey in August backed strike action.

There is a gap between ambition and action on circularity in the Swedish electronics industry, according to Elisabet Österlund, Secretary General of Svensk Elektronik. For circularity to become more than a sustainability talking point, stronger incentives are needed from both industry and government.