This article written by Ron Bishop for TTI Market Eye provides an outlook into global leading connector vendors and its position by regions.
Quality, design, electrical and mechanical engineers and purchasing personnel work to identify the companies with whom to partner for their connector requirements. This requires answers to questions such as:
- Which companies offer the products and services we require?
- Which offer the best delivery, affordable pricing and exceptional quality?
- Which offer well designed websites where it is easy to locate products and supporting documentation?
- Which offer exceptional customer service and can be counted on when there is a problem?
Globally, there are approximately 1,500 companies that manufacture connectors, making it impractical to vet them all. The first step is to determine which companies deserve a closer examination. We believe a good starting point is to first examine the larger, more successful companies.
Generally, the larger companies have been successful because they offer a broad array of high-quality products at a reasonable price and are able to deliver these products within a period that meets the customer’s demand. With over 35 years of researching the connector industry and analyzing connector companies, we believe the first step in identifying the best connector suppliers is to identify the Top 10 companies, using different definitions of what constitutes Top 10. Here are four areas we feel are vital:
- Top 10 in world sales
- Top 10 in each geographic region
- Top 10 by individual product type manufactured
- Top 10 within each market served
This series of articles will provide you with the names of the Top 10 companies in world sales by geographic region, by manufactured products and by markets served. We will publish these articles in succession, starting with total world connector sales.
The source of this information is found in the 2024 Top 100 Connector Manufacturers research report. Most connector users are interested in learning more about the companies beyond the Top 10 described in these articles. This is because the industry has many niche manufacturers that, although small from a revenue perspective, produce excellent products. If you are interested in delving deeper and identifying other excellent companies, visit the link provided above to view Bishop’s report on the Top 100 connector manufacturers.
When we finish publishing this series of Top 10 articles, you will learn there are 54 companies that have received a Top 10 ranking in either sales, sales by region, by product type or market sector. If you wish to see more potential suppliers of connectors, we have developed a website that provides profiles on over 750 connector companies. You may generate lists of connector companies by sales, products manufactured, markets served and country of origin. Visit The World’s Connector Companies to view the capabilities of this dynamic website.
The first of our four articles identified the Top 10 in world sales. These companies are ranked from one to 10:
- TE Connectivity
- Amphenol
- Aptiv
- Molex
- Foxconn (FIT)
- Luxshare Precision
- Yazaki
- Rosenberger
- JAE
- Hirose Electric
This article, identifies the Top 10 in each geographic region.
| 2023 Rank | North America | Europe | Japan | China | Asia Pacific | ROW |
| 1 | Amphenol | TE Connectivity | TE Connectivity | TE Connectivity | Amphenol | TE Connectivity |
| 2 | TE Connectivity | Amphenol | J.S.T. | Amphenol | TE Connectivity | Amphenol |
| 3 | Molex | Aptiv | JAE | Luxshare | Yazaki | Yazaki |
| 4 | Aptiv | Molex | Yazaki | Foxconn (FIT) | Molex | Rosenberger |
| 5 | Samtec | Rosenberger | Sumitomo | Aptiv | Foxconn (FIT) | Sumitomo |
| 6 | Yazaki | HARTING | Hirose | JONHON | KET | Aptiv |
| 7 | Glenair | Phoenix Contact | Molex | Molex | Hirose | KET |
| 8 | Hosiden | Yazaki | Amphenol | JAE | LOTES | Foxconn (FIT) |
| 9 | BizLink | BizLink | Rosenberger | Shenzen Deren | BizLink | Luxshare |
| 10 | Carlisle | Weidmüller | LEMO | Rosenberger | Luxshare | HARTING |
When geographic regions are the criteria for identifying Top 10 companies, an additional 15 companies achieve Top 10 status.
These companies are:
- Samtec
- Glenair
- Hosiden
- BizLink
- Carlisle
- HARTING
- Phoenix Contact
- Weidmüller
- LEMO
- J.S.T.
- Sumitomo
- JONHON
- Shenzhen Deren
- LOTES
- Korea Electric Terminal (KET)
Several of these companies achieve Top 10 status in more than one region. The following table identifies the Top 10 ranking by region for each of the 25 companies.
| Company | World Rank | North America | Europe | Japan | China | Asia Pacific | ROW |
| TE | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Amphenol | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Aptiv | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 6 | ||
| Molex | 4 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 4 | |
| Foxconn (FIT) | 5 | 4 | 5 | 8 | |||
| Luxshare | 6 | 3 | 10 | 9 | |||
| Yazaki | 7 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 3 | |
| Rosenberger | 8 | 5 | 9 | 10 | 4 | ||
| JAE | 9 | 3 | 8 | ||||
| Hirose Electric | 10 | 6 | 7 | ||||
| BizLink | 11 | 9 | 9 | 9 | |||
| JONHON | 12 | 6 | |||||
| Sumitomo | 13 | 5 | 5 | ||||
| J.S.T | 14 | 2 | |||||
| Phoenix Contact | 15 | 7 | |||||
| HARTING | 16 | 6 | 10 | ||||
| Samtec | 17 | 5 | |||||
| LOTES | 18 | 8 | |||||
| Korea Electric (KET) | 19 | 6 | 7 | ||||
| Shenzen Deren | 20 | 9 | |||||
| Glenair | 22 | 7 | |||||
| Carlisle | 24 | 10 | |||||
| LEMO | 30 | 10 | |||||
| Hosiden | 33 | 8 | |||||
| Weidmuller | 35 | 10 |
Important highlights from this table include:
- Amphenol achieved Top 10 status in all regions.
- TE Connectivity is ranked one or two in all regions.
- Molex achieved Top 10 status in all regions except ROW.
- Yazaki achieved Top 10 status in all regions except China.
- Rosenberger achieved Top 10 status in four regions.
- LuxShare achieved Top 10 status in three regions.
- Foxconn (FIT) achieved Top 10 status in three regions.
- JAE achieved Top 10 status in two regions.
- Hirose achieved Top 10 status in two regions, down from three in 2022.
- Samtec achieved Top 10 status in one region, down from two in 2022.
- BizLink achieved Top 10 status in three regions.
- HARTING achieved Top 10 status in two regions.
- This is the first year LEMO made the Top 10 in regions.
Also of note:
- CommScope and IRISO, who were in the Top 10 in 2022, dropped off the Top 10 by geographic region. Look for them as potential Top 10 candidates by market sector or product type.
- 2023 will be the last year Carlisle will appear on the list, as they have been acquired by Amphenol.
