Emerging economies drive PLC market growth
-- Control Engineering, 7/4/2008
Dedham, MA – Strong economic growth in Asia and Eastern Europe has boosted the programmable logic controller (PLC) market in 2007. According to an ARC Advisory Group study on PLCs, economic expansion is expected to continue, but future growth will be at a slower pace. ARC Advisory Group says the worldwide market for PLCs should grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.5% over the next five years. The PLC market stood at nearly $9.0 billion in 2007 and is expected to surpass $12 billion in 2012. Substantial investment in manufacturing and infrastructure industries continued worldwide.Control Engineering provides Analysis: PLCs vs. PACs; Programmable automation controllers (PACs); and Product Research on Programmable Logic Controllers.
“Emerging economies, such as those in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and Eastern Europe, helped propel the growth of the PLC market, which was driven by increasing consumer demand from the growing middle class in those countries, adding new infrastructure within those countries to boost their quality of life, and a positive environment for capital investments in emerging markets," says ARC Advisory Group senior analyst Himanshu Shah, principal author of Programmable Logic Controller Worldwide Outlook.
Globalization drives manufacturers to invest in creating new capacities in industries, such as chemical, cement, metals, pharmaceutical, and textiles, ARC says. Building automation is experiencing strong growth with massive commercial, industrial, and residential building projects worldwide, and PLCs, used across major discrete and process industries, will experience growth as emerging economies demand increasing automation, ARC says. Although a cooling-off period is expected, demand is expected to grow during the forecast period.
The market demands the programmable automation controller (PAC), a multi-disciplined controller, provide real-time logic, motion, and process control, in addition to HMI and other functions, on one platform. Major suppliers have extended PLC functions beyond logic, especially in higher end models. PLC-based PAC market growth is expected to be higher than PLC market growth, driven by the logical extension of PLC functionality to multi-discipline platforms. ARC predicts today’s small and large PLCs and some micro PLCs will morph into PACs; pure PLCs will remain at nano and some of the micro levels.
PLC applications, which cut across discrete, process, and hybrid automation segments, are set for steady growth across manufacturing. Companies increasingly use PLCs as decision-makers become aware of the need for more automation, and for producing and saving energy to cope with rising energy demands and costs globally. In addition to quantitative assessment of the PLC market, the report is said to analyze products and strategies of leading PLC suppliers and explore issues that affect the future market.
– Control Engineering News Desk
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