productronica 2023: back to its old strength

From November 14 to 17, over 1,400 exhibitors from 45 countries presented innovations at productronica from the fields of electronics development and production. That puts this year’s event almost on a par with 2019, and well above the results from 2021. The key topics included power electronics, artificial intelligence, and sensors in electronics manufacturing.

The internationality of exhibitors and visitors reached a new high. While participation by companies from abroad rose to 54% (2019: 51% ), the proportion of international visitors increased by more than two points to around 58%.

Dr. Reinhard Pfeiffer, CEO of Messe München, gives a very positive review: “With these outstanding figures, productronica once again proves that it is the most important event for electronics manufacturing worldwide. In addition, the strong and increased number of visitors from China and the U.S. underscore this leading position.”

Rainer Kurtz, Chairman of the productronica Advisory Board, agrees with him: “productronica 2023 provided an excellent platform for preparing further growth in the electronics industry. Munich was once again a globally unique marketplace for innovations, and a win for exhibitors and visitors alike.”

Thilo Brückner, CEO of the VDMA trade association Electronics, Micro and New Energy Production Technologies (EMINT), adds: “productronica was a very successful trade fair again for VDMA EMINT and its members. It is the place to be, the halls were full as if Covid had never existed, and all we saw were happy faces.”

Top marks for productronica

In the overall rating, both exhibitors and visitors were once again very satisfied with productronica. According to a survey carried out by the market research institute Gelszus, 99 percent of the visitors rated the event as excellent to good. In addition, 97 percent of the visitors surveyed said that productronica had lived up to their expectations as regards innovations.

On the exhibitor side, productronica also received top marks. For 92 percent of companies, the trade fair was excellent to good. 94 percent of the companies praised the high quality of the visitors.

productronica Exhibition Director Barbara Müller is delighted with the positive ratings: “It’s great to see that the event was able to build on the very good results from 2019 and even exceed them in some cases. The excellent quality of visitors in particular demonstrates how extremely highly regarded productronica is in the industry.”

In total, 42,000 visitors from 94 countries came to Munich. After Germany, the countries with the largest number of visitors were (in this order): Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Czech Republic, the U.S., China, and the Netherlands.

Strong growth for exhibitors from China

This year’s event also showed why China is so important for productronica. Compared to 2019, the number of Chinese exhibitors increased by approximately 50 percent to around 80 companies, putting China in third place among the top exhibiting countries behind Germany and the U.S.

At the same time, the space occupied by companies from China increased by over 100 percent. While the figure was around 780 m² four years ago, it was around 1,800 m² at productronica 2023. That means China was in fourth place behind Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands among the countries with the largest exhibition space.

productronica innovation award presented for the fifth time

An extensive supporting program, comprising three forums, various live demonstrations, and a career area, complemented the offerings in the exhibition area. Among the highlights was the presentation of the productronica innovation award. Already for the fifth time, Messe München, in cooperation with the trade journal productronic, honored innovative solutions and products in the field of electronics manufacturing. This year’s winners are:

• AP&S – Semiconductors Cluster
• ASYS Group – Future Markets Cluster
• budatec – Inspection & Quality Cluster
• Frisimos Technologies – Cables, Coils & Hybrids Cluster
• smartTec – SMT Cluster
• SUSS MicroTec – PCB & EMS Cluster

More exhibitor statements:

Stefan Janssen, Managing Director Fuji Europe:

“productronica has always been an important trade fair for us as a manufacturer of electronic pick-and-place machines. Our focus is on automation, digitalization, and flexibilization of processes in favor of the smart factory. These were also the topics in high demand at this year’s trade fair. We literally had a rush of visitors to our stand. Overall, we believe that productronica 2023 had above-average attendance and was able to consolidate its important position.”

Günter Lauber, CEO, SMT Solutions Segment & EVPc, ASMPT:

“For us as a global company with headquarters in Munich, we’re on our home turf at productronica, and it’s the largest and most important trade fair in our calendar worldwide. We are very happy with how the trade fair went. We saw a host of new and, above all, international contacts at our stand.”

Ajit Manocha, CEO SEMI:

“Semi is very satisfied with its partnership with Messe München. Semicon Europa and productronica in Munich have proven to be so successful that we want to focus even more on this collaboration in the future.”

Matijas Meyer, CEO Komax:

“Thanks to its high profile and high level of internationality, productronica is very important to us. Here we have the opportunity to present our products and services to a global audience and come into contact with numerous existing and potential new customers.”

Nicolas-Fabian Schweizer, Chairman of the ZVEI PCB-ES trade association:

“productronica has shown that the optimism in the industry is justified. What’s more, the trade fair confirms the importance of PCB and electronics production as transformation technologies for the energy transition and digitalization.”

The next productronica will be held in Munich from November 18 to 21, 2025.

You will find photos of this year’s productronica in the media database.