New EIPC President: Building Strength Through Unity in Europe’s Electronics Industry

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Industry veteran Rico Schluter, newly appointed president of EIPC, discusses his decades-long journey through the European PCB industry and his vision for its future. From building advanced manufacturing operations to leading large-scale facility development in Lithuania, Rico shares insights into automation, workforce evolution, and the challenges of scaling production. He emphasizes the urgent need for stronger collaboration across European industry organizations to effectively influence policy in Brussels, particularly around supply chain resilience, trade regulations, and energy-related incentives.

Rico also highlights mounting pressures from material shortages, rising costs, and global competition, urging the industry to act collectively. Only through unity, innovation, and persistence can Europe strengthen its position in the global electronics manufacturing landscape.

Marcy LaRont: Rico, you’ve been in the industry for a very long time, and have vast experience across the sector. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Rico Schluter: I started 43 years ago at Mommers Print Service, a Dutch PCB company, as an operator and steadily climbed the organization to become an area manager. In those years, Mommers was a top-notch global technology company. It was acquired by Viasystems, and in 2005, Viasystems decided to move all production from its European PCB production facilities to China. I worked for another Dutch PCB manufacturer for a few years; unfortunately, this company does not exist anymore. After that, I worked for Group ACB in Belgium, a PCB manufacturer serving mainly high-end military and aerospace customers. After a few years, I made the change to RUWEL, a German company at the time focused on automotive and renewable energy. When Unimicron took over, I became the CTO in Germany and later, CEO. Four years ago, Teltonika asked me to help them build the new, highly automated PCB factory in Vilnius, Lithuania.

LaRont: Can you tell me more about the journey of building that factory in Lithuania and why it’s so important to Europe?

Schluter: The Teltonika factory in Lithuania is 33,000 square meters, which, measured by European standards, is quite huge. We built the entire factory, including all utilities and wastewater treatment, for two phases. For phase one, we installed all equipment, meaning they already have state-of-the-art equipment installed to produce 2,500 working panels per day. After production ramps up, they will install the equipment for phase two, and will be capable of producing 3,500 working panels per day. For Europe, that is a high-volume plant.

The factory has a very high level of automation and, as mentioned before, state-of-the-art equipment. Other focus points are a clean production environment and economic reuse of wastewater. There is no piping and electricity cables, it's white ceilings and floors from the front of the shop all the way through to the laboratory. It's fully automated; my goal was that the operators working in this huge factory—only 250 employees—would do only added-value work on the product or the processes, and not be walking around with trolleys. Transport between processes is done by automated mobile robots (AMRs) that transport the racks. They're ramping up now. The challenge wasn’t in building the factory but making it a running factory. It is never easy to start up a huge PCB factory in a country with very limited PCB history, meet all certifications, and learn by doing, but they will manage.

LaRont: Rico, let’s talk about EIPC. Obviously, this is a critical time for the industry in Europe. What steps are most critical to build up the supply chain in Europe?

Schluter: For me, it's really important when you compare ours to other institutes and organizations, such as the Global Electronics Association, FED in Germany, and ICT in the UK. There are Swiss and Italian PCB groups, and FDEF and FIEEC in France. It’s a lot. But to address the EU government in Brussels, for example, when we compare our industry to others in Europe, we have around 300,000 people working in Europe in PCB and PCBA, including the supply chain, raw materials, and equipment that support them. The automotive industry is around 8.6 million in Europe, and the chemical industry is at 3.5 million, but neither was able to get any decent support or incentive from the EU for their suffering industries. If we do not combine forces now, in my opinion, we have no chance of getting anything done in Brussels.

LaRont: That's an insightful perspective. I haven’t heard it put quite like that.

Schluter: That's why I'm reaching out now. I believe there is room for every organization with their own identity, serving their members in the way that they think fits best. But to address Brussels, we need to unite, speak with one voice, and be very persistent. I'm hearing really positive sounds now that, finally, after six years, they're discussing how to eliminate these ridiculous import taxes on copper and base materials. But even when they decide to eliminate these unfair import taxes, it will not be the holy grail for saving our European PCB industry. It would create a fairer playground for PCB production in Europe.

We have pushed them on this for a long time. We suggested that if you cannot eliminate these taxes, then why don’t we put extra import taxes on ready-to-use PCBs from China? The EU has said, “No, this is not part of the EU. This is part of the World Trade Organization.” But when I look at the U.S. is doing, there are ways to do what needs to be done. You just need to think a little bit outside the box.

Together with the Global Electronics Association last year, we mobilized many PCB shops and supply chain companies to urge the EU government to include PCBs and PCBA in the EU’s Chips Act 2.0 and treat them as an integral part of the entire ecosystem. They will decide on this toward the end of the year. I hear positive sounds, at least, about what’s being discussed now, so I really hope that this will become a reality.

LaRont: What more needs to be done?

Schluter: I will start mobilizing all of the European PCB shops to address Brussels for the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) to include (or re-assess) NACE 26.11 in the list of sectors eligible for ETS indirect cost compensation under the relevant EU State Aid Guidelines (CEEAG/ETS framework).

Heavy industries like steel and chemistry are now getting EU incentives because they're consuming a lot of energy. There are incentives for electronics (semiconductors and other electronic components), but they don’t include PCBs, even though we are also quite energy-intensive, with plating, pressing, and drilling.

I'm a realist; it won’t happen before the end of the year. But, at least now, I see commitment, and everyone is stepping over their own shadow, wanting to cooperate. Our organization has also opened up.

LaRont: Working together, as we were talking about, making those connections and having those dialogues, means everything for our future.

Schluter: Yes, I was always open to everyone, including competitors. When we had the fire at Unimicron Germany in 2018, within two days, several PCB shops started helping us survive while we rebuilt our factory. Everyone should help each other where possible.

LaRont: Let’s talk again about the market, where there is certainly a lot going on in the materials supply chain.

Schluter: Almost every day, we can read business postings about Asian PCB manufacturers and, with them, many laminate suppliers jumping on the AI server board opportunity. During our last EIPC Winter Conference, Steve Driver said, “Let them do it. When they concentrate on that, there will for sure be some 'nuggets' (other business opportunities) for the European market.” I absolutely agree on that.

Nevertheless, a completely China-free supply chain is not possible, as China controls the resins, the base material, and everything.

Together with Mark Goodwin from Ventec, I pre-warned everyone about the shortage in February. But it's not only the base material; it’s also the precious metals and copper prices. A few months back, no one had it on the radar that tungsten carbide would experience a 350% price increase in five months, which is the main material for the drill and routing tools.

I've been in the PCB industry for 42 years, and I have never seen anything like this happen in such a short time frame, with all these price increases and material availability issues, not even during the pandemic. During the pandemic, I said, “Please prepare, if you have the storage and the budget.” I had a feeling that this could create a perfect storm. Now we're seeing that every base-material supplier has raised prices by 18–35% in a single quarter, and many have announced a second round of increases by the end of March. So, I think we need to fight a little bit harder for our industry.

LaRont: Rico, I know you will continue to bring people together, and I wish you much success in doing so.

Schluter: Thank you, Marcy.