In last year’s Outlook Report, amec warned of unpredictability as the greatest risk for internationalized industrial companies. This year, it has already been consolidated and has become a landscape. The recent attack on Iran has once again reminded us that instability in international markets has become a variable with a direct effect on the energy costs and logistics routes of Spanish industrial companies. Against this backdrop, amec publishes its annual Report on the Situation 2025-2026, the most accurate thermometer of how Spanish internationalized industry lives and what it thinks.

FY2025 data show how the industry has weathered the geopolitical gale. More than seven out of ten companies closed the year with an increase in sales, with an average turnover growth of 5.2%, and 93.3% ended the year with a profit. Export growth was moderate, although positive. Foreign sales grew by 5.54%, with an average export propensity of 57% of total turnover: more than half of the turnover of internationalized industrial companies comes from outside Spain. “The report, in addition to measuring results, highlights the ability of amec companies to adapt and continue to grow despite the extremely demanding context in which they operate on a daily basis.“Joan Tristany, Managing Director of amec, assures.

France, USA and Portugal have topped the ranking of export destinations in 2025, but the most striking growths come from the Middle East regions with 14.2% and the Maghreb with 12%. “Faced with Trump’s tariffs, internationalized industrial companies have done their homework and diversified into emerging and proximity markets. But now the focus of tension has shifted to precisely those regions, and that complicates the playing field. “argues Tristany. At the other end of the spectrum, America and Asia are falling back, partly as a result of trade tensions with Washington.

Even so, the United States is a market with a great deal of potential that internationalized industrial companies are not willing to abandon. As Joan Tristany warns, “The United States is a market of great potential that internationalized industrial companies are not willing to give up. It is a market that has cost a lot to open and that we have to maintain. In many cases we have no competition there, and that is a competitive advantage that we must not let slip away. Not surprisingly, the U.S. is the country where more amec companies have a physical presence, specifically 53 of them, which says a lot about the real link that the Spanish industry has built there. In total, 135 companies have establishments outside Spain, with 692 locations around the world. In 2025 alone, 12 companies opened 14 new ones, with the United States being the country with the highest number of openings.

And what do amec’s internationalized industrial companies foresee for 2026? A combination of ambition and caution. 81% expect to increase their turnover and 74.1% expect to increase their exports, with an expected growth of more than 10%. Numbers that, in the current context, say a lot about the confidence of a sector that has learned to plan with uncertainty”. Undoubtedly, these are figures that contrast with the justified concern that dominates the public debate on international trade, and reflect the difference with the vision of those who operate in the markets every day. Even so, companies are cautious in the face of recent events, decisions are being made with one eye on Washington and the other on Tehran. “summarizes Tristany.

The map of markets of interest for 2026 tells a story of accelerated diversification. The U.S. retains the top spot, but France and Germany are gaining weight and reinforcing a European axis that the industry is not abandoning despite its loss of dynamism. Beyond Europe, the new developments are revealing, with Brazil bursting into the ranking, in what points to the first tangible effects of the agreement between the EU and Mercosur. In parallel, India, Morocco and Saudi Arabia are consolidating their positions among the ten markets of greatest interest.

Internationalization is not an easy path. The main difficulties in developing internationalization and business risks in 2026 are concentrated in price competitiveness and geopolitical and commercial uncertainty, both of which were identified by a large majority of companies, which places the external environment and margins as the central areas of concern.

In this context, the report identifies China as the main focus of current competition, cited by 64% of companies and well ahead of Italy and Germany. The industry’s response is innovation. In 2025, R&D investment reached 6.2% of turnover, up from 4.6% the previous year, and 96.9% of companies carried out some innovative activity. The focus is on the development of new products and services and on digitalization and artificial intelligence. “Differentiate or lose share, that’s the equation amec industrial companies have in mind when they look at their competitors.concludes Joan Tristany.