Across eight GETMILK product analyses from August and September 2026, 49 parts were flagged as not makeable in Portugal, and the same four families recur: complex circuit boards (7 of 8 products), chips and radio modules (6), battery cells (5) and motors or magnets (4). The reasons are scale and capital, not skill: chip fabs, cell gigafactories and magnet plants are rare even in the EU. Small runs are refused because setup, reel minimums and chip allocation do not shrink with the order.
Portugal can machine a chassis, bend sheet metal, wire a harness and assemble a finished machine, but most of the electronics and energy parts inside a modern product are made elsewhere. Across eight GETMILK product analyses from August and September 2026, 49 parts were flagged as not makeable in Portugal, and the same four families came back again and again: complex circuit boards and their assembly (7 of 8 products), chips and radio modules (6), battery cells (5), and motors or magnets (4). The reasons are scale and capital, not skill: in 2024 more than 85% of batteries imported into the EU came from China [9], and the EU gets 98% of its rare-earth magnets there [8]. Small customers get turned away for a separate reason: setup, reel minimums and chip allocation cost the same for 200 units as for 20,000.
Key facts
- GETMILK's eight analyses with a localisation check (11 August to 26 September 2026) list 49 parts not makeable in Portugal, 37 of them marked critical.
- Amkor's Porto site packages and tests chips in a 500,000 sq ft IATF 16949 facility; we found no production wafer fab in Portugal [1] [2].
- The Commission's own forecast puts the EU's share of global chip value at 11.7% in 2030, against a 20% target [16].
- EU battery manufacturing capacity covered 21.4% of estimated 2030 needs in 2024 [9]; Portugal's first cell plant, CALB in Sines, was contracted in January 2026 [10].
- 100% of rare-earth processing takes place outside the EU, mostly in China [18].
- In 2025 the EU imported €164.9 billion of electrical machinery and parts from China, 29.5% of all its imports from China [19].
Which parts do GETMILK's analyses flag as not made in Portugal?
GETMILK's spec tool breaks a product into parts, processes and possible makers, and checks each part against producers in Portugal. We took a sample of eight product analyses that carry a localisation check, covering industrial and consumer products: robotics, drones, audio, trackers, chargers and household devices. We then grouped the 49 flagged parts into families.
| Part family | Products flagging it (of 8) | Example parts | Reason the analyses give |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complex boards and dense assembly | 7 | 8+ layer compute board, 6-layer flight controller, high-current ESC | High-volume multilayer fabs and fine-pitch SMT lines |
| Chips, radio and sensor modules | 6 | Bluetooth and WiFi modules, MCUs, MEMS microphone, GPS | No wafer fabrication in Portugal |
| Battery cells | 5 | Li-ion and LiPo cells, CR2032 coin cells | Gigafactory-scale investment |
| Motors, magnets, laminations | 4 | Drone outrunners, NdFeB magnets, suction motor | Magnet supply, winding and lamination tooling |
| Displays and HMIs | 2 | Industrial touchscreen, small LCD | Display fabs concentrated in Asia |
| Specialty materials and passives | 3 | Ferrite cores, electrolytic capacitors, bio-resin granulate | Specialised chemistry and sintering |
A methods note. These are AI-assisted first passes, generated from photos, datasheets or descriptions, not audited teardowns, and they are sometimes wrong in Portugal's disfavour. Two of them say Portugal has no chip packaging or no bare-board fabrication at all; in fact Amkor packages chips in Porto [1] and Guimocircuito makes quick-turn 2 to 8 layer boards in Guimarães [15]. We count what they flag, then check it against public evidence below. You can run the same check on your own product with spec to shortlist.
Why are chips and radio modules not made here?
Because a wafer fab is a multi-billion-euro, high-volume plant, and Europe as a whole is short of them. The EU's Chips Act entered into force on 21 September 2023 [17]. The European Court of Auditors reports that the Commission's own forecast has the EU's share of the global chip value chain rising only from 9.8% in 2022 to 11.7% in 2030, against a 20% aim, and that the Commission directly manages about €4.5 billion of the €86 billion the act mobilises [16].
Portugal holds a real piece of the back end. Amkor's Porto plant does wafer-level packaging, MEMS and sensor packaging, flip-chip and test [1]. INL in Braga runs a cleanroom on 200 mm wafers for research and small pre-series [2]. Neither makes the microcontroller, the Bluetooth radio or the power IC your board needs. Those are bought, and their allocation terms come with them.
Why no battery cells, and when will that change?
Cells need gigafactory scale: electrode coating, formation and ageing lines, and safety testing, sold by the million. The Commission's Joint Research Centre found that in 2024 more than 85% of batteries imported into the EU came from China, and that EU capacity covered 21.4% of the needs estimated for 2030 [9]. Portugal's answer is contracted but not built: on 20 January 2026 AICEP signed a €2,065 million contract with CALB for a lithium battery factory in Sines, with 1,800 jobs [10]. Until it produces, every cell in a Portuguese pack is imported, and pack assembly for small runs is itself scarce.
Why are motors and magnets on the list?
Portugal does make permanent-magnet motors: Allied Motion Portugal builds brushless motors for vehicles and lists AMRs and UAVs among its automation applications [14]. What it does not make is the magnet. The EU sources 98% of its rare-earth magnets from China [8], and the Court of Auditors finds that all rare-earth processing takes place outside the EU [18]. A small drone or robot maker buys either a finished motor or magnets through a distributor, and both routes run through China's export rules, which we cover in rare-earth magnets after 10 November.
Where can you get boards assembled in Portugal?
Board assembly exists, but at the two ends. Bosch's Braga plant made 24 million pieces in 2024 with 3,573 staff, for its own automotive business [3]. Preh has a plant in Trofa [4], but its third-party assembly offer names only Bad Neustadt, Dippach and Ningbo [5]. At the small end, Globaltronic in Águeda offers pre-series of up to 100 units at a time, or more if spread over time [6].
Watch for "local" offers that are not local. A Portuguese-language site called PCB Portugal promises Portuguese support, but says the boards are made in factories in Asia and lists its SMT capacity in Shenzhen [7]. That can be a fine service; it is the wrong one if you are buying local for lead time, IP control or origin. Origin now matters for public buyers too: see how much of your product is made in Europe.
Why do small customers get turned away?
Three costs do not shrink with the order.
- Setup. An assembly line can make hundreds to thousands of units a day, "but it also takes days to set up", and one-off costs such as stencils, programming, jigs and test fixtures come before the first good board [11].
- Reels. Many parts ship only in reels of 3,000 or 1,000 pieces [12]. On a 200-unit run you pay for the reel or pay a premium for cut tape.
- Allocation. In the first quarter of 2026 NXP asked customers for firm orders at published lead times, a minimum 12-week buffer and rolling full-year forecasts [13]. A small buyer rarely has any of the three.
Prototype services handle a handful of boards and big plants handle volume. Our reading of the evidence, not a published statistic, is that the squeeze sits between about 100 and 5,000 units, where Globaltronic's 100-unit batch [6] ends and captive lines begin.
What does this look like in a real product?
On 24 September 2026, at an energy-and-water trade fair near Porto, I photographed an autonomous pallet robot on a Portuguese integrator's stand. GETMILK's tool produced an analysis from that one photo. Treat it as a first pass: the robot analysed by GETMILK is a generic autonomous pallet robot, and some details, including the maker, are wrong in the draft.
- Portugal: chassis and sheet metal, powder coating, CNC brackets, wheels, harnesses, final assembly, calibration and testing.
- Imported: LiDAR, the navigation board on an 8+ layer high-speed PCB, lithium-ion cells, a pre-certified WiFi module and the drive motors with encoders and gearboxes.
- Lead times it flags: 16 to 20 weeks for LiDAR and 18 to 24 weeks for a custom battery pack.
- Budget (GETMILK estimate): €45,000 to €65,000 for one working prototype in 12 weeks, including imported subsystems, a calibration fixture, a notified-body pre-assessment and 20% contingency.
The pattern matches the table: the mechanics and integration are Portuguese, the silicon, cells and magnets are not.
What to do next
- Split your bill of materials into "made nearby" and "imported" before you ask anyone for a price, and order the imported long-lead items (sensors, boards, cells, magnets) in week one.
- Make the small run easy to quote: real quantity, full drawings, a BOM with part numbers, and what you expect to order next. Producers refuse uncertainty as much as small numbers. For the wider method, see how to find a manufacturer for your product in Europe.
- If you want us to find the makers: GETMILK's managed sourcing sends one RFQ package to Portuguese and EU suppliers and compares the quotes, from €900 for up to three part families. If your product is mostly mechanical and you already have a shop that answers, you do not need us.
References
- Amkor Technology. Amkor Technology Portugal (ATEP) (accessed 28 September 2026)
- INL, International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory. Micro and Nanofabrication core facility (accessed 27 September 2026)
- Bosch Portugal. Bosch em Braga: factos e números (2024 data, accessed 28 September 2026)
- Preh. Locations (accessed 27 September 2026)
- Preh. Electronic Manufacturing Services (accessed 27 September 2026)
- Globaltronic. Globaltronic: desenvolvimento, prototipagem e pré-séries (accessed 28 September 2026)
- PCB Portugal (WellPCB). Fabrico e montagem de PCB para Portugal (accessed 27 September 2026)
- European Parliamentary Research Service. China's rare-earth export restrictions (At a glance) (24 November 2025)
- European Commission, Joint Research Centre. Battery Technology in the European Union: Status Report on Technology Development, Trends, Value Chains and Markets 2025 (2026)
- Government of Portugal. AICEP: investimentos de três mil milhões de euros criam 2336 novos empregos (20 January 2026)
- Andrew 'bunnie' Huang. The Factory Floor, Part 4 of 4: Picking and maintaining a partner (2013)
- Andrew 'bunnie' Huang. The Factory Floor, Part 1 of 4: The quotation (January 2013)
- Sourceability. Q1 2026 Lead Time Report Highlights (17 April 2026)
- Allied Motion Portugal. Allied Motion Portugal: motion solutions for vehicles and automation (accessed 27 September 2026)
- Guimocircuito. Guimocircuito: quick-turn 2 to 8 layer PCB manufacturer (accessed 28 September 2026)
- European Court of Auditors. Special report 12/2025: The EU's strategy for microchips (press release) (2025)
- European Commission. European Chips Act (accessed 28 September 2026)
- European Court of Auditors. Special report 04/2026: Critical raw materials for the energy transition (16 February 2026)
- Eurostat. Trade in goods with China in 2025 (10 April 2026)
Questions people ask
- Can you make chips in Portugal?
- Portugal packages and tests chips at Amkor's Porto site and prototypes micro-devices at INL in Braga, but we found no production wafer fab. Microcontrollers, radio chips, power ICs and memory in a Portuguese product are fabricated abroad.
- Why do factories refuse small orders?
- Because fixed costs do not shrink with the order. An assembly line takes days to set up, many parts come on reels of 1,000 or 3,000, and chipmakers such as NXP asked customers in 2026 for firm orders, a 12-week buffer and full-year forecasts. On a few hundred units those costs can exceed the margin.
- Is there PCB assembly in Portugal for small batches?
- Yes, but capped or captive. Globaltronic offers pre-series of up to 100 units at a time, Guimocircuito makes quick-turn 2 to 8 layer bare boards, and the large assembly plants such as Bosch Braga serve their own automotive business. Check that a Portuguese-language PCB site does not produce in Asia.
- Will Portugal make battery cells?
- A plant is contracted, not running. AICEP signed a €2,065 million investment contract with CALB for a lithium battery factory in Sines on 20 January 2026, with 1,800 jobs. Until it produces, every cell in a Portuguese battery pack is imported.