NEVADA CITY, CA -- The 20 largest contract manufacturers saw first-half revenues increase 2.7%, a sharp reversal from a year ago, a new report said. 

The Top 20 EMS and ODM firms saw aggregate revenue decrease 6.6% through the first six months of 2013, New Venture Research said.

The uptick was led by seven ODMs which collectively saw revenues rise 9.3% in 2014 versus a decline of 7.8% in 2013. The surge was driven by new demand for computers and handheld devices, NVR said. Meanwhile, traditional EMS companies saw a more muted revenue recovery. 

"This reversal came as a result of strong demand for ODM tablets, servers, notebooks (desktops went into decline), and smartphones, whereas EMS companies achieved a more modest turnaround of 2.9% growth in 2014 versus a 8.6% decline the previous year. EMS companies benefited from the rebound in demand for smartphones and tablets, plus a resurgence from traditional industries such as medical, industrial, and transportation, where ODMs have only a minor manufacturing presence," said Randall Sherman of NVR.

Companies with the strongest improvement in terms of year‐to‐year gain were Flextronics, Benchmark, Compal, Qisda, and Quanta Computer. Foxconn, the world's largest EMS/ODM, saw gross revenue rise 2.4% to $59 billion.

Partially offsetting the gains were Wistron, Pegatron and Venture, whose collective sales fell 7.1% in 2014 versus 2.9% growth in 2013. Of those companies, Wistron suffered the most due to a significant drop in notebook orders and slow product diversification. Pegatron also experienced a slight decline in notebooks and smartphones (possibly from its ramp‐up with Apple), consistently with the rest of the industry overall, NVR said.