I would appreciate it if US folks making small PCB orders from the China PCB manufacturers during this chaotic period could share their experiences. Did you see a sudden price increase from the vendor? Did the shipper hold your shipment for ransom, or did they deliver and then hit you with a tariff bill later? What has changed in your most recent China PCB fabrication experience vs. previous ones?
I was about to fire off an order for this
RC2014-compatible RAM/ROM card this morning with JLCPCB (look in the jlcpcb/production_files directory for the necessary uploads). It's a roughly 100x50mm board with a handful of components. The "global direct line" shipping option seems to have gone away, with only DHL/UPS/FedEx available. Selecting standard PCB with mostly default options (only selecting purple solder mask instead of green) and no assembly is (as of today at 12:22 PM PDT) yielding a total price of $30.14, shipped via UPS with tariffs and such prepaid on their end:
- merchandise total: $2.00
- shipping estimate: $24.64 (UPS Express Saver DDP)
- customs duties and taxes: $3.50 (175% of $2.00)
In the past, this would've been an under-$10 order.
Adding assembly to the mix (since I prepaid for some of the chips on the board) drives the order cost to $171.10, broken down as follows:
- merchandise total: $56.34
- shipping estimate: $42.79 (UPS Express Saver DDP)
- customs duties and taxes: $98.60 (175% of $56.34)
- prepaid amount: -$26.63 (components in my JLCPCB parts library)
Lack of a cheap shipping option doesn't help, but the duties are a killer, especially for an assembly order. I've also looked at OSH Park ($38.65 for 3) and DKRed ($46.36 for 4), and while JLCPCB is still cheaper (and you get 5 boards), it's not cheaper by nearly as much as it was.
To be fair, it should also be noted that both OSH Park and DKRed provide ENIG finish as a standard feature, while I selected leaded HASL with JLCPCB. Selecting ENIG finish at JLCPCB drives the PCB-only cost to $75.54, which is definitely not competitive:
- merchandise total: $18.20
- shipping estimate: $25.49 (UPS Express Saver DDP)
- customs duties and taxes: $31.85 (175% of $18.20)