EMS firms eyes Eastern Europe

Despite lack of viable infrastructure, lack of an insufficient supply base and despite the higher wages compared to China the Eastern European region has become very popular as manufacturing location for the EMS firms. Many EMS companies have been operating in Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary for some time now but the lower wages is like a magnet attracting the EMS firms further east to countries like Ukraine, Romania, Bulgary and Russia. In these countries you can be able to get your hands on workforce for about 70% lower price than in Western Europe. However the wages in Eastern Europe are not as low as in China but the benefits of manufacturing in Eastern Europe is the nearness to Western Europe which brings down the costs for logistic and the delivery times. One of the major issues to the EMS companies is the lack of suuppliers based in these areas why the manufacturers now are working close to their suppliers to build up supplier campuses next to their facilities.