nalyst: Contract Electronics Manufacturers To See Revenue Triple

Contract manufacturers will continue to increase their market share in the production of electronics products for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), predicted a senior research analyst speaking at a recent investment conference. Banc of America Securities analyst Paul Fox says that by 2002 contract manufacturers are expected to garner 24%, or $211 billion, of the total amount spent worldwide to produce electronics products. By contrast, in 1998 just 13%, or $80 billion, of the $627 billion spent worldwide for the production of electronics was outsourced to contract manufacturers. Additionally, Fox says the top 10 electronics contract manufacturers should increase their revenues faster than the overall industry and likely will generate more than $76 billion in revenues by 2002 vs $23 billion in 1998.