The 2016 Advanced Manufacturing, Materials & Engineering Report

The 2016 AMME report was produced by a panel of experts selected from industry, government and academia and chaired by Dr. Rob Hardeman, Vice Chair of the MATRIX panel.

The AMME sector is export and R&D intensive and includes sectors such as aerospace, polymers and materials handling as well as some highly specialist companies – all with a focus on advanced manufacturing, materials and engineering. There are over 2,000 such businesses in Northern Ireland, employing over 40,000 people, paying salaries 26% above the NI average and generating sales worth £7.2bn in 2014.

The study revealed several diverse subsectors – aerospace, polymers, materials handling, agri engineering, automotive and construction products – as well as a significant number (around a third of the top 300 companies) which are highly specialized individual companies. But despite the diversity, when these companies were asked what mattered most to them, there were three consistent themes – skills, costs and sectoral development.