Video: Industry executives reflect on business outlook survey

Automation industry leaders offer their thoughts on the results of Control Engineering and Morgan Stanley's global research project.

Peter Welander

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While attending the ARC Advisory Group Industry Form last February in Orlando, executives from six global industrial automation companies sat down with editorial director, David Greenfield, to offer their thoughts on the results of the Control Engineering and Morgan Stanley Global Automation Industry Outlook for 2010.

Through a series of questions, the participants offer their assessments of what has been happening at their companies through the recession, and where they think business may be headed as we continue a recovery phase.

Participants include:

• Scott Spencer, vice president of marketing, ABB Process Automation Division

• Steve Sonnenberg, president, Emerson Process Management

• Ken Innami, director of IA marketing, and Scott Rohlfs, director of product marketing, Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc.

• Andy Gravitt, senior vice president, industry business, Schneider Electric

• Raj Batra, president industry automation division, Siemens Industry, Inc.

• Satoru Kurosu, senior vice president, global business headquarters, Yokogawa Electric Corporation

The complete video is separated into four parts due to file size limitations for practical viewing online.

Part 1, Return to economic growth : Most respondents to the Control Engineering /Morgan Stanley survey indicate that the automation market bottomed in 2009 and will return to modest growth in 2010. Do you agree? (7:39)

Part 2, Order rates and customer financing : Would you say that your order pipeline is filling up again - or would you say that orders are trickling in? Are you able to maintain current pricing levels or will buyers see an uptick in 2010? The ability to obtain financing was a big issue for many automation buyers last year. Do you see that issue being alleviated? (9:19)

Part 3, Active industry sectors : Food & beverage, automotive, and chemicals were the three markets cited in the survey as looking to spend the most on automation in the near term, according to buyers. Do you see that continuing in 2010 or are there other industry sectors you seeing heating up? (6:10)

Part 4, Motivations for buying new equipment : Buyers cited increasing demand, replacing aging equipment, and improving energy efficiency as the three main reasons they planned to buy new automation equipment. Do you agree? Are there other reasons you're seeing? (2:15)

Read the summary article from December, 2009 .

Read all the survey results .

Peter Welander, process industries editor,

Control Engineering daily news desk