2017 sees encouraging growth in the components market

The UK market for electronic components has grown 17% in 2017 and is showing no signs of slowing down.

It’s been a hectic year for the UK’s electronic market with many highs and lows. With the electronic component supply chain continuing to experience major strain throughout 2017 and with that set to continue well into 2018 it’s encouraging to be able to end the year on a positive.

The Electronic Components Supply Network (ECSN), the organisation, which represents distributors, has reported an impressive 17% sales growth in 2017 – well above the original forecasted figure of 4.3% for the year. The good news doesn’t stop there; that figure is estimated to keep on rising throughout 2018 between 6.5% and 10.5% – happy New Year indeed!

The overall picture is looking quite promising with electronics component sales growing for six consecutive quarters – the longest period of sustained expansion since the year 2000. The ECSN has predicted another five quarters of market expansion to add to that as well. What’s driving the growth you may be wondering? Rapid investment in the implementation of electronic systems into ever-more areas of daily life is thought to be the main cause. As technology advances at a pace we’ve never experienced before the need for interconnectivity between everything and everyone has never been so crucial – it’s an exciting time to be in the industry. That’s not to say it’s all plain sailing ahead; as mentioned above the electronic component supply chain will continue to experience major strain throughout 2018 and that will lead to a multitude of issues for buyers and sellers such as key lead time and capacity issues, pricing uncertainties and manufacturer mergers. With the right strategies in place however, companies can still look forward to a prosperous 2018.

According to the ECSN chairman Adam Fletcher “The global electronic components market is transitioning from consumer products towards fully autonomous transport and smart cities.”

“The vast infrastructure build‑out – including the deployment of 5G mobile networks that will be required to support autonomous vehicles, connected cities and their populations is a huge opportunity. The move from internal combustion engines towards all-electric vehicles is another enormous shift that will significantly reshape the electronic components market.”

Adding that, barring any “major macroeconomic shocks”, the growth of the components market would continue for the rest of the decade.

Aubrey Dunford, market analyst at the ECSN, said: “UK companies find themselves in an ideal position to capitalise on the opportunities presented, most of which are within the market sector served by authorised distributors.”

Here at UK Electronics we look forward to another great year whilst we wish our customers and all those in the industry a prosperous 2018.