Driving Innovation: Mechanical and Optical Processes During Rigid-flex Production
It’s Only Common Sense: Your Biggest Competitor Is Complacency
The Chemical Connection: Onshoring PCB Production—Daunting but Certainly Possible
The Hidden Geography of Electronics: Rethinking Trade, Inputs, and Strategic Advantage
August 27, 2025 | Dr. Shawn DuBravac, Global Electronics AssociationEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Beneath the surface of debates about reshoring, tariffs, and supply chain resilience lies a deeper reality: Global electronics manufacturing is increasingly driven by the flow of inputs, not just the shipment of final goods.
Electronics manufacturing is not just global; it is globally interdependent. In 2023 (the most recent data available), electronics trade reached $4.4 trillion, accounting for more than 20% of total global merchandise trade. This figure reflects not only strong consumer demand for smartphones, computers, and electric vehicles, but also the dense web of international transactions behind each finished product.
Electronic components such as semiconductors, circuit boards, connectors, sensors, and batteries now account for most trade in the electronics sector. This dynamic has accelerated in recent years, reflecting the growing complexity of both devices and supply chains.
In 2023, global trade in electronics inputs exceeded trade in finished electronics by more than $400 billion. As products become more technologically advanced, they require a larger number of specialized parts, many produced in only a handful of locations. The result is a supply chain that is highly fragmented, deeply layered, and tightly interconnected across borders.
This interdependence is structural. No country controls the entire value chain, and efforts to achieve “technological self-sufficiency” must reckon with the deep-rooted realities of global specialization. For companies and policymakers, understanding this hidden geography is essential. Resilience may depend less on isolation and more on how interdependence is managed.
Continue reading this article in the Summer 2025 issue of Community Magazine.
Share on:
Testimonial
"Your magazines are a great platform for people to exchange knowledge. Thank you for the work that you do."
Simon Khesin - Schmoll MaschinenSuggested Items
GlobalFoundries Announces Chief Financial Officer Transition
10/28/2025 | GlobalFoundriesGlobalFoundries (GF) announced that, effectively immediately, John Hollister, GF’s Chief Financial Officer, is leaving the company for personal reasons. Sam Franklin, GF’s Senior Vice President of Business Finance, Operations and Investor Relations, will assume the position of Interim Chief Financial Officer while the company conducts a search for a permanent CFO.
A New Era for Global Trade and Electronics
10/28/2025 | Chris Mitchell, VP of Global Government Relations, Global Electronics AssociationThe global trade system is undergoing an enormous, systemic paradigm shift. For decades, the World Trade Organization (WTO), with the support of the United States, its traditional European allies, and many other nations, stood at the center of efforts to create fairer, more predictable, and rules-based commerce. Today, however, that model is giving way to a more fragmented reality—so far U.S.-driven—in which individual nations and blocs are striking deals and imposing a variety of rules of their own liking.
China Plus One: Vietnam and Thailand Manufacturing Solutions
10/28/2025 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineU.S. electronics manufacturing companies are weighing the “China Plus One” solution as they strategize how best to mitigate the ever-increasing pressures and costs of manufacturing in China. Several global markets, particularly Thailand and Vietnam, are seeing significant growth in their sectors. This article breaks down the pros and cons of each market, including a look at U.S. tariffs and how each country is addressing a significant skilled labor gap to support their electronics manufacturing goals.
Electronics Industry Warns Mexico Tariffs Could Undercut U.S. Manufacturing and Supply Chain Resilience
10/24/2025 | Global Electronics AssociationAs negotiations over U.S.–Mexico trade policies near an October 29 deadline, the Global Electronics Association released a new policy brief, From Risk to Resilience: Why Mexico Matters to U.S. Manufacturing.
Come Together: Tom Marktscheffel Used Data to Build CFX and a Global Factory Standard
10/27/2025 | Sandy Gentry, Community MagazineWhen Tom Marktscheffel, director of product management software solutions at ASMPT, looks back on his nearly three decades in electronics manufacturing, one word stands out: data. “Data is the new gold,” he says. Without it, automation, artificial intelligence, and the factory of the future are impossible. With it, the industry can move from manual, error-prone processes to smart, connected systems that make real-time decisions.