Apr 14 2009
The European micro, nano 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. 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. 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.
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.