Building A Profitable Niche

摘要

There's no question that the printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing market has changed dramatically in recent years. In the past, 30% of the world's production took place in Europe and North America, but by 2007, that market share had declined to 17% with the majority of production coming from China, Japan and the rest of Asia (FIGURE 1).rnThis situation is by no means unique-the migration of manufacturing from industrialized countries to emerging areas of the world is a well-documented pattern that has been observed in everything from consumer electronics to construction equipment. As markets migrate to these emerging countries with low-cost suppliers, what can manufacturers in Europe and North America do to compete?