The top 10 EMS companies contributed most of the sector's $384bn in 2020, and most of them are active in making medical device components
The top 10 EMS companies manufacture the bulk of devices in the medical industry (Credit: Shutterstock/HQuality)
Electronic manufacturing services (EMS) are a vital cog in that keeps both the consumer and commercial economy turning, and the top companies get a decent bulk of their business from the medical device industry.
The service can vary from providing individual components used to manufacture devices, to full-scale production services designed to scale up the supply of a product in order to meet increased demand.
The EMS sector achieved aggregate sales of $384bn in 2020, according to a report from market analysis firm New Venture Research.
The bulk of that revenue was contributed by the top 10 firms in the EMS sector, and here we take a look at each of those active in manufacturing medical devices and rank them by how much they made in 2020.
The top 10 EMS companies providing their services to the medical device industry:
1. Foxconn – $193.72bn
The market leader by an order of magnitude, Foxconn logged $193.72bn in revenue in the year 2020, making it the top player in this list of EMS companies that service the medical device industry.
Roughly half of this income was collected from its well-known client Apple, as the Taiwanese firm manufacturers the bulk of the cult company’s iPhones.
But Foxconn has also been a contract manufacturer in the medical device industry since 2014, and today has subsidiaries like Genconn Biotech Corp which makes cancer-detection technology, and Coning Technology Co, which produces laboratory equipment.
2. Wistron – $31.37bn
Wistron places second in this ranking, but clearly not closely, with an annual revenue of $31.37bn in 2020.
If this were a ranking solely based on EMS company revenue, the spot would go to Pegatron, but that company’s focus is consumer technologies, like computers and mobile phones.
Wistron’s HQ is in Taiwan much like its main competitor, and it also gets some of its business from Apple, manufacturing iPhones for the company’s Indian operation.
But one of its major streams of revenue comes from subsidiary Wistron Medical Technology Corp, which provides services that span the design process of medical devices all the way through to manufacturing them and handling the supply chain logistics.
3. Jabil – $27.27bn
The race gets a little closer from here, with third-place Jabil pulling in $27.27bn for 2020, a $4.1bn drop on Wistron.
The Florida-based firm counts the medical device industry as one of its main sources of income, with subsidiary Jabil Healthcare – formerly Nypro before its acquisition in 2013 – providing services that run the gamut of medical device types, from joint replacements to diagnostic tests.
In 2020, owners of the subsidiary’s factory in Bray, Ireland, signed a deal with UK startup DnaNudge in order to scale up the latter’s Covid-19 test production.
4. Flex – $24.12bn
Heading back to Asia now, Singaporean firm Flex – previously known as Flextronics International – became the fourth of the top EMS companies that serves the medical device industry in 2020.
The firm has a huge portfolio of customers from markets as varied as the automotive industry to creating 5G infrastructure for the communications sector.
When it comes to healthcare, Flex handles the design and improvement of medical devices, as well as wide-scale manufacturing.
In early 2020 for instance, the firm joined forces with competitor Jabil to amp up the production of Phillips ventilators to meet the demand of Covid-19 patients admitted to hospitals with severe symptoms.
5. BYD Electronics – $10.59bn
BYD Electronics may be fifth from top in this list of medical device producing EMS companies, but with a revenue of $10.59bn, it marks the start of the entries in this list that operate on a much smaller scale than the top five.
An acronym for ‘Build Your Dreams’, the Chinese company, like many on this list, manufactures components for Apple’s iPhones, along with electric vehicles.
But it also has a small portfolio of medical device clients, and after former US President Donald Trump famously banned the purchase of buses and rail cars in December 2020, it pivoted to create the largest manufacturing plant producing Covid-19 masks, signing a $1bn contract with the state of California.
6. USI – $7.45bn
Next in line is Shanghai-based USI (Universal Scientific Industrial), which logged $7.45bn in revenue in 2020.
The company provides EMS components, product design and miniaturisation improvements to products within the automotive industry, as well as several others.
It acquired Asteelflash in December 2020 to add to its portfolio of clients in a range of sectors, including the medical industry, with products addressing sleep regulation and hearing improvement, among others.
7. Sanmina – $6.96bn
Sanmina has been a well-known name in the medical device industry for some time, with a portfolio that includes MRI machines, surgical robots and X-ray tech, among other devices.
The company made $6.96bn in revenue for 2020, placing it seventh on this list, and $1.21bn above the next entrant.
Sanmina’s senior director of engineering Robert Newberry stated the company’s intention to create optical biosensors that can diagnose disease as an alternative to invasive procedures earlier this year.
8. Celestica – $5.75bn
Coming in at number eight, Celestica is another name that’s been around a little while in healthcare circles.
The Toronto, Canada-based firm totalled $5.75bn in revenue for 2020, some of which came from its medical device clients, although not much is known about the sorts of technologies it produces in its factories.
It is known that Celestica worked with fellow Canadian firm StarFish Medical to scale up the production of its ventilator made to combat Covid-19 deaths.
The company has also been outspoken about the benefits of developing technologies that enable patients and providers to focus on disease prevention – a common theme among medical device creators.
9. Kinpo Electronics – $4.49bn
Another smaller player, Kinpo Electronics made $4.49bn in revenue, with its main business coming from consumer electronic companies.
But in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, its subsidiary New Kinpo Group pivoted slightly to create a portfolio of ventilators, masks, robotic room disinfectors and a smart mirror that can detect when temperatures are raised as a way to triage people for Covid-19 testing.
Another brand owned by Kinpo, XYZlife, has a focus on designing products that cross the divide between healthcare and consumer fitness, with disease prevention the goal.
10. Plexus – $3.39bn
The last of the top 10 EMS providers that manufacture medical devices is Plexus, which accumulated $3.39bn in total revenue for 2020.
The company supplies components and participates in the design and manufacture of products in the communication, medical, security and aerospace industries worldwide.
Much like the earlier-mentioned Jabil, the portfolio of products Plexus produces for the medical device industry is wide-ranging, with laboratory workflow automation, surgical robotics, drug delivery and tissue diagnostics being just a few areas it has produced within.