Kobi Ventura, President, Aleader Europe

2019 was a challenging year for the electronics market in general worldwide and for Nordson Advanced Technology in Asia, but one that enabled us to adjust and align our resources for the future.

Tariffs had a huge impact on the electronics market, especially those companies that manufactured all their products in China or the US.

Nordson manufactures both in China and the US but also in Europe. This allowed us to minimise the effects of the tariffs as we manufacture in the US and Europe for those markets and in China for the Asian markets. Many people believe that companies manufacture in China purely to obtain cost reductions. That is far from the truth.

Manufacturing in China allows us to be closer to our customers and deliver world class quality at competitive prices.

Tariffs have forced many of our customers who relied heavily on China for manufacturing, to move out of China to some extent. Most have moved to Vietnam, Thailand, Eastern Europe and Mexico. Some Chinese companies are moving to India which presents additional challenges but India seems to be progressing as a viable offshore manufacturing center.

Moving forward, Nordson Advanced Technology will continue to not only build, but also research and develop products close to our customer base.

In such a challenging market with many low-cost manufacturers competing worldwide, the only defence is attack. Industry 4.0 and other enabling software’s are also key to the market challenges in the future. We must continue to bring state of the art, faster and more advanced technology to our customers at competitive pricing, while at the same time supporting that equipment anywhere in the world with best in class customer support.