Electronics Production |
Summary of 30 years in the European electronics industry
Over the past 30 years the European electronics industry has gone through a few transformations. The West European market has grown nearly five times since the1970s but the dynamics of the European electronics market have-, and are still changing.
Semiconductors are today playing a more significant role in the electronics industry. Since the 70’s it’s market share has grown from five to ten percent. Electronic data processing today accounts for over 30 % of the market compared to less than 20% in the 70’s. Since the Internet/telecom boom in 2000 great parts of the European volume manufacturing have been moved to more cost effective regions like Asia. To EU newly entered countries from Eastern Europe have also gained a lot of volume manufacturing and this region is still growing. The output in the European electronics industry has fallen by 24% since 2000. In France, the UK and Germany the output decreased by 35%, 39% and 14% respectively, the same period of time. Though the outsourcing to lower cost regions appears to plateau. The Western european output was 2004 estimated to 200 billion Euro and the growth is forecast to accelerate in 2006 and 2007 to reach 280 billion Euro by 2008.
The remaining operations in Europe are now production of high-mix products, distributors and development and manufacturing of high-tech products.
