European Machine Vision Industry to Decline by Ten Percent - VDMA Reports

FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The VDMA Machine Vision division is forecasting a ten per cent drop in sales in nominal terms for the machine vision industry in Europe this year. The sales outlook has deteriorated compared to the April forecast (minus 3 per cent) with no anticipated growth envisaged for 2025. The industry is expecting new impetus from the world's leading trade fair VISION.

"The manufacturing industry is the most important customer for the European machine vision industry, with a market share of 71 percent for systems and 62 percent for components," says Mark Williamson, Chairman of the VDMA Machine Vision Division. “In Germany, Europe's largest economy, orders for this sector in July 2024 were 4.3% lower than in the same month a year earlier, after adjusting for calendar effects. This is having a dampening effect on demand for machine vision products in the short term. In the medium to long term, however, the industry's success story will continue, as machine vision remains a key automation technology.”

New sales areas

Overall, the market environment for machine vision is benefiting from a broad automation trend. This applies both to the manufacturing industry and non-manufacturing. In fact, demand for machine vision systems outside the manufacturing industry rose by 5 per cent to a market share of 29 per cent in 2023 continuing the trend for machine vision conquering new application fields. The three most important areas of application here are Intelligent traffic systems, with a revenue share of 61 per cent, logistics & postal sorting (20 per cent) and medical equipment (7 per cent).

Demand for machine vision components is even higher outside the manufacturing industry, accounting for 38 per cent of sales. Medical equipment accounts for 34 per cent of component sales, followed by intelligent transport systems (18 per cent) and logistics & mail sorting (12 per cent).

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About world's leading trade fair VISION

The world's leading trade fair for machine vision will take place from 8 to 10 October 2024 in Stuttgart, Germany: www.messe-stuttgart.de/vision/

About VDMA Machine Vision

As part of the VDMA Robotics + Automation trade association, VDMA Machine Vision has more than 130 members: suppliers of machine vision systems and components as well as integrators: https://www.vdma.org/machine-vision