The manufacturing sector still has poor visibility of an upturn in business, but there may be reasons to be more cheerful, writes Phil Inness friom UK-based manufacturing services company Axis Electronics.
Looking at the last set of published accounts for the top 80 electronics manufacturing service (EMS) companies in the UK, the indications are that there was an encouraging 9% increase in overall business year-on-year. This is welcome news against the backdrop of the financial crash and market uncertainty from 2008/9 onwards.
Considering this, and moving into a new year with new forecasts and budgets, now is the time to consider the EMS market in this time of uncertainty, especially since decisions on headcount and capital investment have to be made by gazing into this crystal ball.
Discussing the topic with the heads of other EMS companies, the conclusion is that the situation is certainly not getting any clearer.
Poor visibility
In general, poor future visibility remains and because of this few are reluctant to predict anything better that an optimistic flat or modest growth – and many of these colleagues would be happy with this result.
Good news however that one of the major roadblocks to growth seems to have eased off a bit. Few managers now complain of labour availability as being an issue.
