In January 2021, the AMA Association for Sensors and Measurement surveyed its members on the economic development of the past 2020 financial year. According to its own information, the industry generated an overall drop in sales of 2%. Turnover fell in the first two quarters, but picked up again in the third and fourth quarters. The industry closed the fourth quarter with a significant increase in turnover of 10% compared to the previous quarter.

While the sector was previously regarded as particularly investment-friendly, many investments were scaled back last year. Large companies with more than 250 employees were particularly reluctant to invest. Small and medium-sized AMA members invested more than in the previous year. Overall, the industry is planning to increase investment by 11% again this year.

Industry records significant increase in exports

The industry's traditionally strong export ratio recorded a further increase. However, export quotas to other European countries have been declining since 2016, while the export quota to non-European countries has continued to rise. Overall, the export ratio was 61% in 2020. The export ratio to other European countries was 24 percentage points last year.

The sensor and measurement technology sector also introduced short-time working due to the pandemic. While 58% of companies were still on short-time working in the third quarter, this figure fell to 52% in the fourth quarter. After around 38% of all jobs in the sector were on short-time working in the second quarter, the proportion of jobs affected was only 11% at the end of 2020.

Pandemic has a positive impact on digitalization

The AMA Association asked its members whether and in which areas digitalization is taking place due to the pandemic. 86% of members stated that the Covid-19 pandemic is leading to increased digitalization in their companies. Large as well as small and medium-sized companies stated that they were digitizing their own sales in particular.

"2020 was not a good year for our industry either. Sales, investments and the number of jobs fell in the first half of the year. Thanks to short-time working, our members were able to retain specialist staff," says Thomas Simmons, Managing Director of the AMA Association for Sensors and Measurement. "In the second half of the year, sales and incoming orders picked up again and the willingness to invest is growing. This is positive for the industry as a whole, which is expecting sales growth of 9 percent for the 2021 financial year."