The annual statistics of EMS companies in Europe have been completed. At the beginning of each new year, IPC and in4ma send out reporting forms to over 1,500 EMS companies in order to get an initial overview of the development of the European EMS industry in the previous year (2022). In addition to sales and number of employees, the market segments supplied, export sales, order backlog, purchasing volume and the assessment of sales development over the next two years (2023/2024) are also queried. This year, due to the current inventory problem, stocks of RHB materials at the end of 2022 and 2021 were also queried.

These numbers are analyzed by IPC and in4ma and compiled into a detailed report (this year 73 pages PDF). All participating companies receive this report free of charge. The companies use the numbers for an internal benchmark in order to better assess their own performance compared to the industry average and sometimes also use the numbers in the management reports for the annual financial statements.

As in previous years, a new record number of participants was set again this year. In total, the sales of 256 EMS companies (legally independent units) with a total turnover of over 12 billion euros and over 55 thousand employees were recorded. The evaluation is carried out according to the countries in which production is located. If there are enough reporting figures for individual countries, a division into different sales groups is also made, as small and large companies sometimes differ greatly in development and figures. In Western Europe in particular, we achieved a participation of over 34% (based on the 2021 sales of the reporters) for the first time. The growth was 22.8% compared to the previous year, while the proportion of personnel only grew by 5.5%.

What was frightening was the level of stocks of RHB substances, which were already very high in 2021 and increased again in 2022.

There were also some significant shifts in the market segments served.