ANALYSIS: PHOTONICS WEST: INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
Photonics shows resilience to
December 2020 operations compared to pre-pandemic
pandemic Photonics West industry update paints a positive outlook. Matthew Dale reports
Continuing issues P
hotonics was healthy and growing going into the pandemic, and is
appearing to emerge relatively unscathed, with capacity having substantially returned to near- normal levels overall. So said Stephen Anderson,
director of industry development at SPIE, at the recent Photonics West digital forum. ‘Many photonics firms
managed to escape the worst of the pandemic’s effects, in large part because a large number of the photonics manufacturing entities were classified as essential for national security,’ he said. While the industry is certainly not back where it would have been had it stayed on the pre- pandemic trajectory, according to Anderson, it is doing well, considering the many hurdles created by covid. His comments were based on
a survey of US photonics firms conducted by SPIE towards the end of 2020 to assess the impact of the pandemic. Of the 202 firms that took
part, 35 per cent claimed to have returned to pre-covid levels of operation, while 22 per cent claimed to have increased in operation. On the other end of the scale, 8 per cent claimed to be operating at less than 50 per cent capacity, while 3 per cent claimed to not be operating at all. In between, 27 per cent said
they were between 75 to 95 per cent capacity, and 6 per cent were
6 Electro Optics April 2021
operating between 50 to 75 per cent capacity. Issues continuing to be faced
by photonics firms caused by the pandemic relate mostly to order distribution and access to investment. Delivery and onsite
installation of products has also continued to prove problematic, with about 25 per cent of SPIE’s survey respondents reporting this as an issue. About half of the respondents reported that order flow was either the same or better compared to pre- pandemic levels, with 28 per cent reporting only a modest reduction in orders. The firms were asked for their expectation of the business environment for December 2021. More than 60 per cent were optimistic, expecting an increase in product development, investment, expansion and sales throughout the year. In addition, 72 per cent of respondents expect staffing levels to either maintain or grow by then. Less than 20 per cent of respondents in any category expected things to get worse. Reinforcing the statement of continuing health for the photonics industry despite the pandemic, Anderson used the aggregated quarterly revenues of the top 30 US firms in SPIE’s core components database, to show that Q3 revenue was up 7.6 per cent in 2020 compared to Q3 2019. Q3 revenue was also up 14.1 per cent in 2020 compared to Q2,
SPIE survey USA December 2020
SPIE survey USA December 2020
Looking forward 2021
SPIE survey USA December 2020
Top 30 total revenues
Aggregated quarterly revenues of the top 30 SPIE photonics core components firms
SPIE Photonics West Industry Update: Trends and Outlook @electrooptics |
www.electrooptics.com
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