How Defense Demand And HDI Capacity Are Reshaping Europe’s PCB Industry with Polytron-Print's Michael Müller

Live from Productronica 2025, I sit down with Polytron-Print's Michael Müller to map the real forces reshaping Europe’s PCB landscape. After a year that felt flat across Germany, order flow has finally stabilized since midyear, turning survival mode into measured planning. Michael opens the shop door on what customers are actually asking for: complex HDI builds with blind and buried vias, tighter tolerances, and faster feedback loops. That demand has prompted a concrete move—doubling blind via filling capacity—to meet programs that prize reliability and local collaboration over sheer volume.

We also unpack the defense effect rippling through the supply base. Even without actively serving defense, Polytron Print is seeing oversized RFQs that reveal how hard it is to find vetted European capacity. When a single quote equals a quarter of a factory’s annual load, you know the market is stretched. The downstream impact is powerful: defense-heavy shops get saturated, and industrial and sensor customers look for reliable alternatives nearby. That’s where HDI credibility matters. Years of proving capability are translating into production orders, not just prototypes, as teams choose local partners for sensitive, low-volume, high-complexity boards.

Across the conversation, we get practical about why HDI work stays in Europe: quality oversight, IP stewardship, responsive engineering, and shorter loops during bring-up. We touch on the cloudy automotive picture, the uptick in quotes as some competitors struggle, and how targeted automation supports consistency without sacrificing the flexibility high-mix builds require. If you’re navigating PCB sourcing, evaluating HDI partners, or tracking how defense budgets are rebalancing capacity, this candid update offers a clear, ground-level signal amid the noise.

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Transcript

Market Check At Productronica

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Hello, I'm Philip Stoughton. I'm here at Productronica 2025. I'm on the Global Electronics Association booth and I'm joined by Michael from Polytron Print. Michael, pleasure to chat to you again. I think we spoke a year ago at uh Electronica. Yes. Um things were going okay. The German market was in a bit of a flat spot. That flat spot seems to have pushed through most of um 2025. Thankfully, yeah. How are you seeing things as you get towards the end of the year? And what's the level of optimism for 26?

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Well, things are improving since the beginning of the year, and uh so every month is getting better in terms of incoming orders, and since uh July, August, September, it's it's uh it's a steady level, which is uh which is okay. It's not it's not great, but it's much better than it has been last year.

Defense Demand And Capacity Strain

SPEAKER_01 0:57

At least we're not seeing a decline there. And what last year we talked a lot about critical mass of the industry and uh how the industry was doing generally. Since then, we've seen a bit of a rise in particularly in defense spend. Um we are ongoing with that push for legislation and and such, and perhaps not making the progress at the speed we'd like to there. How do you how do you see that picture? Do you see defense as a bit of a uh a saviour for the industry?

SPEAKER_00 1:27

I think there's quite uh some things going on at the moment. We are not uh actively supplying for the defense industry, but we can we we still we still get some RFQs because I think these guys are really struggling to find people in uh in uh in Europe and capacity. I mean we had one RFQ which was like 25% of our yearly capacity, wow, which is not doable for us. But again, um I think for for us it will benefit because other people will take these orders and the the industry customers probably will come from MT have to step back and uh they'll probably find us.

Building HDI Capability And Automation

SPEAKER_01 2:01

That's the goal at least. So yeah, yeah, people people people then get evened out in their niches. What's happening within your organization in terms of internal development? Are you are you growing capacity? Are you growing capability? Uh last time we talked, you were talking about automation and yeah, automation and also capability.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

I mean, we are we are uh progressing in the HDI uh development. We are just uh adding more capacity for HDI, okay, um, especially blind way blind wire filling. Yeah, um, so we are doubling the capacity for that because we see we get orders uh in this in this uh type of work. Okay, so are you seeing more and more demand for that HDI business and that blind and buried via kind of model? Yes, yes, and also uh I think the the the customers now believe that we can do actually actually can supply this time this type of boards, and uh so yeah, we have done a lot of uh of convincing in the past, and we are in this business since quite a few years, and we have done a lot of convincing, and now uh the customer base starts to to recognize that we are able to supply HDI typeboards.

Why HDI Work Stays In Europe

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Yeah, and those HDI boards, does that set you apart from perhaps some of the global competitors? Does that give you something that perhaps they can't get out elsewhere?

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Does it I don't know, I think uh uh it's it's probably the HDI uh boards are uh not as many as the regular boards, so smaller volume, so people tend to stay in Europe and also higher quality demands and uh people that's my that's my feeling that the customers try to keep it pretty pretty close instead of going everything to Asia.

Outlook For 2026 And New RFQs

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Yeah, and those uh those are for any particular end user industry? It's uh mainly industry. Industry and sensors. Okay, okay, the sensor market. Yeah, and your expectations for 2026? Do you see a uptick? I mean it's hard to see anything positive in the automotive sector, but um elsewhere perhaps.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Yes, I we we see we see uh a little bit of movement at the moment, but that's maybe um seasonal. It's not seasonal because maybe one one or two of our competitors are struggling a little bit in terms of I don't know what, but we we get uh we get a couple of uh RFQs um from boards which are actually bought some some other place, and uh the customer wants to come to us.

Closing Notes And Optimism

SPEAKER_01 4:19

So also maybe go somewhere different, try somewhere different. Yeah, well, hopefully that works out for you. Michael, thanks for stopping by the chat. Always good to get an update. Uh always good to hear from someone who is relatively positive about making printed circuit boards in Europe. We have we have to be, we have to be. Thanks. I enjoy your optimism. Thank you,