| Posted: April 14, 2009 |
Micro, nanotechnology and materials industry reacts to economic crisis in a constructive way |
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(Nanowerk News) The European micro, nanotechnology and materials enterprises intend
to react to the general economic crisis mostly with
constructive measures. Almost 70 percent of the companies
intend to intensify their efforts to acquire new customers;
more than 65 percent want to develop new business fields.
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This is a result of a survey IVAM Research has conducted in
February among 2,300 enterprises and institutes involved in
microtechnology, nanotechnology and advanced materials in
Europe.
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IVAM will present the results on April 23 during the
HANNOVER MESSE on the forum “Innovations for Industry”,
which is part of the MicroTechnology exhibition in hall 6.
Other measures against the crisis taken by the mostly small
and medium-sized enterprises are to intensify marketing
efforts, to access new regional markets and to invest in
innovations. The industry does, however, not get around
cutting costs: almost 35 percent of the enterprises consider reducing labour costs, while 14 percent want to reduce
investments in research and development.
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Almost half (47 percent) of the responding small and
medium-sized high-tech enterprises were affected by the
economic crisis in 2008, mostly by a decrease in orders (78.4
percent) and a decrease in sales (63.6 percent). Prognoses
are worse for 2009, when more than two thirds of the
enterprises anticipate negative effects on their business
development.
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Export share steady – staff development static
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The global economic crisis has had no drastic effects on the
export share of the European microtechnology,
nanotechnology and advanced materials industry in 2008,
which remained steady compared to previous years.
Altogether, almost 50 percent of the small and medium-sized
enterprises have gained at least half of their annual sales
with export in 2008. The USA is still the major export country
of the European industry. Half of the companies say that their
total sales have increased in 2008, while 20 percent report a
decrease in sales. For the current business year, even 28
percent of the respondents anticipate a decrease in sales.
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Prognoses for staff growth are noticeably less optimistic in
the current business year than they were in the previous
years. Altogether, only a third of the European micro, nano
and materials enterprises are expecting their staff numbers
to grow in 2009. More than half of the enterprises expect to
keep staff numbers steady in 2009, while almost 17 percent
expect a decrease.
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Enterprises depend on automotive industry despite sales crisis
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The current sales crisis of the automotive industry apparently
does not prompt the high-tech suppliers to turn away from
this industry. Apart from medical technology, which continues
to be the major market for the European micro, nano and
materials enterprises, the automotive industry is their second
most important market. More than 50 percent of the small
and medium-sized enterprises are supplying the automotive
industry. Nevertheless, 73 percent of the automotive
suppliers are expecting a decrease in orders and 61 percent
a decrease in sales in 2009.
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Microsystems for renewable energies are trend-setting
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Microsystems for renewable energies, e.g. photovoltaic
applications, are a promising market for the European micro,
nano and materials enterprises. 55 percent of the companies
involved in energy technologies intend to focus on renewable
energy applications in the near future. 45 percent of the
enterprises intend to work on functional surfaces that save
energy and costs. 10 percent of the companies that deal with
energy and efficiency technologies plan to focus on “micro
energy harvesting”, where ambient energy, which is gained
from the surroundings, is used for powering microsystems.
“Energy harvesting” is also the topic of a session on the
forum “Innovations for Industry” during HANNOVER MESSE
from April 20 to 24 in Hanover, Germany. The forum and the
Product Market “Micro, Nano & Materials” of the IVAM
Microtechnology Network are situated in hall 6, booth F08
and E16.
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