tariffs on circuit board orders from China

[Scott Baker]

Hi,

Has anyone place a circuit board order from China (e.g. JLCPCB or PCBWay)

since the new tariffs and de minimis rules?

For the following 2 scenarios:

1) a minimum order of 5 bare boards

pre-tariff costs were $8 for the boards and about $20 for shipping.

2) a minimum order of 5 assembled boards

pre-tariff cost were $60 for the boards and $20 for shipping

For the above two hypothetical cases, how much would tariffs add to the total cost?

I've also heard that in addition to the tariffs, the shipping companies add

a tariff processing fee.  How much is that?

Has anyone ordered boards recently and can provide real case data?

Thanks,

Scott

[Dennis Louie]

Hi,

It's difficult to say with things changing so much.  The China import tariff is down to 45%, but the de minimus exemption was removed and then partially "unremoved".

This thread https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/anyone-has-ordered-from-jlcpcb-post-sanctions.206405/ has some info for JLCPCB.

Dennis

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[Tony Jones]

On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 8:40 AM Scott Baker <scott....@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

Has anyone place a circuit board order from China (e.g. JLCPCB or PCBWay)

since the new tariffs and de minimis rules?

For the following 2 scenarios:

1) a minimum order of 5 bare boards

pre-tariff costs were $8 for the boards and about $20 for shipping.

I was talking to someone online about this.   They provided the following info:

2-layer unpopulated qty 25

pre:

$28.80

post:

$28.80 + $49.53 tariff

When I checked a couple of weeks ago the low cost shipping option had disappeared from JLC and the only shipping options were DHL, Fedex which were $30 or so.

You really want to make sure whatever the tariff is it's pre-paid else it's a real lottery what kinds of fees you'll get hit with.

Fortunately only a matter of time until hundreds of low cost pcb fabs spring up here in the USA.

Good luck!

[Jerry Biehler]

Digikey now has a PCB service and it’s pretty competitive with JLC even before the tariffs when you consider shipping. I sent in a board design I just had made at JLC and it was about the same price but made in the US. 

-Jerry

On May 20, 2025, at 9:39 AM, Tony Jones <to...@tonyjones.com> wrote:



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[Jeff Berkowitz]

I ordered some boards during the short window in which the tariffs were roughly 100%. The tariff roughly doubled the price, as expected.
Jeff

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[Ross McFarland]

Don't know much about them other than I ran across it when searching for US options a couple of years ago. They appear to be in the Portland area:  https://oshpark.com/. They didn't work for the project I was getting PCBs for at the time b/c it required cutouts.

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[Jeff Berkowitz]

Really!? I tried that, and the price difference to the lowest-priced US company they quoted was like 5x! ... so it was way cheaper to just pay the tariff.

FWIW it's a 16cm x 8cm 4-layer board with no other special ordering details. I set up a 4-layer stack in KiCad by pushing a button and took all the defaults. JLC quoted me $30 for 5 boards plus $25 shipping (which I count as part of the price). So it was about $110 with the 100% tariff. The cheapest quote I got from DigiKey's service was $360. I later discovered that OSH would have done it for about $200 if I'd been OK with 3 boards instead of 5 boards; but that's still 4x JLC's price, and 2x even with the (temporary, now gone) 100% tariff.

On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 9:51 AM Jerry Biehler <jerry....@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Thomas Lockney]

OSHPark started as an outgrowth of DorkbotPDX. Laen may still even be on this group list. 

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[Dan Stahlke]

OSHPark is great for tiny boards because the fee is purely based on area, with no constant cost added.  I've made some small breakout boards that were 50 cents, including shipping.  Tip: if you live in Portland or its suburbs, choose the free ground shipping.  Ground shipping from this Lake Oswego company will reach you in one day.

[gunterh...@gmail.com]

OSHPark started from Dorkbot. There was a time when we all were making (trying to make) our own boards, laser printing on magazine paper, etc. Then Laen started OSHPark.

He was a very active member, not sure if he still is, it has been years since I was. 

[Scott Baker]

On 5/27/2025 ordered a small (75mm x 55mm) and simple (~35 SMT components) board from JLCPCB.

Here is the cost breakdown for an order of 5 assembled boards:

Bare PCB: $7.00

SMT Parts and Assembly: $58.49
Shipping: $27.00
Import Taxes: $39.30
Grand Total: $131.79 

Regards,

Scott

[Jared Boone]

Hi Scott,

My math says that’s a 60% tariff on the PCB, parts, and assembly. It seems high to me, I thought the tariff was reduced to 30% for another 60 days or so.

Do you recall them citing a tariff markup rate during check-out? Do you recall what HTS code you selected for your project when checking out?

        - Jared

On May 28, 2025, at 06:28, Scott Baker <scott....@gmail.com> wrote:

On 5/27/2025 ordered a small (75mm x 55mm) and simple (~35 SMT components) board from JLCPCB.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dorkbotpdx-blabber/d2211553-b1cc-4abc-8447-87fc517d87a5n%40googlegroups.com.

[Jason Barnett]

Since the order was just placed and the tariff fees have already been charged, I'm guessing there was some estimation and tariff handling fees in there somewhere as well. If not, them the tariff charges would not be charged until the boards hit US customs. 

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[Scott Baker]

Hi Jared,

Yes it's 60% tariff.

I think this is a pre-paid tariff estimate, so it's possible that I'll get a refund if the tariff rate is now 30%.

It was not possible to enter an HTS code directly during the checkout process, but there was a question during checkout about what type of product it was.

The board is a digital tape emulator, so I selected audio equipment from the drop-down menu.

Perhaps I should have selected something else and maybe the tariff would have been less?

Thanks,

Scott

[Scott Baker]

I chatted with the JLCPCB rep and I think I can change the HS code to this one

847330---Computer parts and accessories

https://jlcpcb.com/help/article/us-tariff-policy-faq

Since it hasn't ship yet I was told they could change it and I could get a partial refund

at least on the reciprocating tariff portion. I'll wait and see if it actually happens.

Thanks,

Scott

[Scott Baker]

Hi,

I read the JLCPCB Tariff policy again, and it appears that they pre-collect a fixed 60% tariff fee regardless of the HS code.

I have emailed JLCPCB to confirm this, but I don't think I will be receiving any refund after changing the HS code for my order.

From their Tariff FAQ page:

Q: What is the rate of JLCPCB's advance tax collection?
A: Rate of JLC's advance tax collection: 60%.

Q: How does JLCPCB handle discrepancies between pre-collected and actual taxes?
A: JLC will not refund the extra or collect the difference, as this rate is calculated as an average based on actual tariff rates ranging from 55% to 87.5%

Regards,

Scott

[Aaron Eiche]

We were talking about this in the BadgeMakers discord. Apparently if you are a company you can select CPT (Carriage Paid To) where the shipping company will bill you after the fact. I believe that JLC collects a some info (an EIN or an SSN) to attach the package to a person, and then you get a bill from DHL several weeks after you receive your package. It’s not clear to me if the tariff applied is predictable. And apparently it’s also not clear to some people who work in the industry.

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