Global EMS grew in 2025 – Europe watched from the sidelines

The global EMS and ODM market grew in 2025. That much is clear. What is also clear, according to Weiss, is that virtually none of that growth landed in Europe.

Weiss presented his latest top 100 EMS and ODM rankings at the Zürich event, and the picture is straightforward: the biggest growth rates were concentrated among the largest players –  those above USD 10 billion in revenue. Wistron grew 116%. Quanta Computer around 150%. YWIN 120%. All of them are supplying data centre infrastructure for AI and cloud computing.

"None of that business is coming from Europe or to Europe," Weiss said.

There was one apparent exception. Eastern Europe registered data centre-related growth in 2024, which Weiss initially took as an encouraging signal — until the source became clear. "Before I realised that was two outliers. Both factories from Foxconn in Hungary, doing those data centres for Europe. But nobody else sees that, and that is the problem."

Consolidation continues – defence enters the frame

The European EMS market remains heavily fragmented. Weiss puts the number of European companies at around 2,300, of which roughly 1,900 have revenues below EUR 10 million. By comparison, consolidation in the US moved faster and started earlier.

That process is continuing. Weiss points to Cicor as an example of a company with clear scale ambitions – a stated target of CHF 1 billion in revenue by 2028. The attempted acquisition of TT Electronics did not close last year, but Weiss expects further moves. The UK, he says, is a particularly active hunting ground.

Defence is increasingly part of the calculation. EN 9100 certification is now widely discussed in the industry, and Weiss notes that 14 UK companies currently hold it. He sees all of them as potential acquisition targets – and that is before broadening the scope to the rest of Europe.

He is careful, however, not to overstate the near-term impact. Defence currently accounts for around 5% of the European EMS market. A 20% increase in that segment brings it to 6% – meaningful, but not transformative on its own.

Asian capital, not just Asian competition

The question of who acquires what is not straightforward. European companies are buying other European companies – but Asian capital is also arriving, and Weiss expects more of it.

Two earlier waves of Far Eastern investment in Europe serve as a reference point. The first involved building new factories, largely targeting the automotive segment. Integrated Microelectronics built facilities in Bulgaria, Serbia and the Czech Republic. SIIX built in Hungary. Results were poor across the board. "Automotive stinks," Weiss said. Quality requirements keep rising without good reason, while customers simultaneously push for price reductions. Integrated Microelectronics sold its Czech facility last year. SIIX shut down its Hungary plant.

The second wave looks different. Rather than building, investors are buying existing operations. All Circuits and AsteelFlash in France both passed into Asian ownership. Weiss says he is aware of several active investors in the Far East currently looking at European targets.

"We're going to see a consolidation in respect to European companies acquiring other European companies," he said, "and we're going to see more foreign capital coming over to Europe."

Orders may be picking up – but supply is tightening

Looking at 2026, Weiss is cautiously optimistic about demand. He hears from companies that the first quarter is improving. But he is quick to separate having orders from being able to fulfil them.

Two supply constraints are converging simultaneously. In semiconductors, both memory and logic chips are tightening. Parts of 2026 are already sold out, and in some categories 2027 is also constrained. The phase-out of DDR4 adds to the mismatch – demand and available supply are not aligned. In PCBs, laminate prices have risen 15 to 20%, and Far Eastern manufacturers are redirecting capacity toward higher-margin data centre boards, reducing availability for standard PCBs. Lead times are already extending.

"The question for the EMS industry has to be: okay, I might have the orders, but do I have the semiconductors and do I have the PCBs?"

Against that backdrop, a piece of news that broke just days before the Zürich expo landed heavily. Avnet announced the closure of its Munich facility, with 350 jobs affected. The stated reason: no expected upturn in the German market.

Germany is by far the largest electronics production market in Europe. It has declined from above EUR 10 billion in production value to around EUR 8 billion over the past two years.

"I think it's going to stabilise," Weiss said, "but I don't see a huge increase."

A distributor of Avnet's scale reaching the same conclusion and acting on it is not a data point that is easy to ignore.

Dieter Weiss will return to the Evertiq Expo stage on June 18, this time in Berlin, where he and Eric Miscoll from EMSNOW will present "Diverging paths: how Europe fell behind in the global EMS industry".