Landed cost calculator: PCB assembly in Europe vs Asia
The unit price is only part of the cost. Add freight, duty, inventory in transit, payment terms, quality and travel, and see where the break-even is.
All defaults are example assumptions, not Comtec Labs prices or quotes. Replace them with your own figures.
Cost breakdown
| Cost item | Europe / year | Asia / year | Europe / unit | Asia / unit |
|---|
How the calculator works
Freight is the fixed cost per shipment times the shipments per year plus the rate per kg times the shipped weight. Duty is charged on the purchase price plus freight. Customs clearance is a fee per shipment.
Inventory carrying cost applies the carrying rate to the stock you finance: goods in transit, the safety stock and half a shipment of cycle stock, valued at the landed goods cost. Early payment financing is the cost of capital on money paid before the goods arrive.
Currency risk and quality are a share of the purchase price, travel and audits a yearly sum, and NRE is spread over the product lifetime. The break-even price changes only the European unit price; the break-even volume keeps every other input and finds the yearly volume where both totals are equal.
Not modelled: engineering time lost to time zones and travel, the cost of a late or failed batch, minimum order quantities, and the value of faster design changes. The background is in our article PCB assembly in Europe vs Asia: the total landed cost comparison.
Want real numbers for the European column? Send your BOM and Gerbers with a quote request: the quote comes usually the same working day, at most within 1 working day, with NRE on separate lines.
Request a quote