IMI gaining ground in global EMS market

Ayala-led Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI) is gaining a bigger share of the competitive global market for electronic manufacturing services (EMS) to the automotive industry.

According to US-based New Venture Research, IMI now ranks 7th on the list of top automotive EMS providers, based on 2014 EMS-related revenues, improving from 8th place in 2013, the Laguna-based manufacturer said in a statement.

Revenues generated by IMI from the automotive segment rose by 16 percent to $321 million in 2014 from $276 million in 2013, mainly due to the steady global growth trend and the normalization of the market in Europe.

The company outperformed the average rise of total automotive EMS of 9.9 percent over the same period.

The increase in global market share, IMI said, shows not only the long term growth potential of the automotive market in electronics but also IMI’s commitment to widen and strengthen its foothold in the industry, the company said.

“We are bullish about expanding our business in the automotive industry as the electronic content of a car and the demand for cars increase,” IMI president Arthur Tan said in a statement.

The biggest business for IMI these days comes from the automotive segment as cars around the world increasingly require more electronic rather than mechanical components.

The automotive segment accounted for 37.3 percent of the $860.8 million in revenues reported by IMI in 2014.

The electronics content of the average vehicle produced nowadays continues to grow by about 15-20 percent each year.

IMI’s other big global peers as EMS providers to the automotive industry and their respective automotive EMS revenues are: Flextronics Inc. ($1.75 billion); Foxxconn ($1.39 billion), PKC Group ($1.1 billion); Jabil Circuit ($719 million); SIIX ($714 million); Zollner ($356 million); TT Electronics ($319 million); Kimball Electronics ($279 million) and Videoton ($241 million).

IMI provides product development and manufacturing services to the global automotive market.

It also develops platforms or baseline technologies for driver assistance systems, safety-related control devices, electronic steering, and ignition modules.

A subsidiary of Ayala Corp., IMI is one of the leading global providers of EMS and power semiconductor assembly and test services with manufacturing facilities in Asia, Europe, and North America.

Apart from the automotive segment, it serves diversified markets that include those in the industrial, medical, telecommunications infrastructure, storage device, and consumer electronics industries. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla