The machine vision industry in Europe has been reporting record sales for years. Between 2012 and 2022, turnover increased by an average of 9 percent per year. Although sales fell by 4 percent in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, they shot up again in 2021 (plus 17 percent) and 2022 (plus 11 percent).

However, the combination of full customer warehouses - mainly caused by orders beyond demand - geopolitical risks and a weak global economy led to a 7 percent drop in sales in 2023, both in Europe and Germany. The German machine vision industry thus still achieved a turnover of 3.2 billion euros.

"Unfortunately, due to the current economic and geopolitical situation, we were unable to match the records of previous years. Although we are seeing initial improvements, it is unlikely that the European machine vision industry will return to growth before the end of 2024," comments Mark Williamson, Chairman of the VDMA Machine Vision Division.

Things are set to pick up again from the fall

Business expectations for 2024 deteriorated again in November and December 2023. As a result, the VDMA is issuing a negative forecast for the first time since the economic crisis year of 2009: the association expects sales to fall by 3 percent for 2024 as a whole. The reasons for this are the prevailing uncertainties, which are deterring machine vision users from investing. The machine vision industry's order backlog is shrinking accordingly.

However, from the second half of the year, at the latest in the run-up to the Vision trade fair in Stuttgart, which will take place from October 8 to 10, 2024, the tide should turn and some of the minus accumulated in the first half of the year should be offset.