Asia Pacific PLC market experiences strong growth

Wellingborough, UK –The worldwide market for programmable logic controllers (PLCs) is forecast to grow steadily, surpassing $9 billion by 2011, growing at around 5% per year, according to IMS Research . The Asia Pacific region is expected to have the strongest growth, at an annual rate of 7.9%.Because of the rapid growth the Asia Pacific region has experienced in recent years, it has drawn more attention than Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the largest markets for PLCs in 2006. The Asia Pacific market is still developing and shows quite different trends compared to other major worldwide regions, says IMS Research. Currently, lower-cost, lower-functionality products are being shipped more readily in this region, a result of the less developed technology and aggressive price competition. The fast growing pace still shows more opportunities and the greatest potential for PLC products, along with the rise of more local PLC suppliers.Unlike other worldwide regions, where suppliers focus more on improving price-performance ratio and developing new application areas for PLC products, price is the key issue in the battle between local suppliers and larger global suppliers in the Asia Pacific region. Larger companies are unable to beat the low prices at which local suppliers offer PLC products. Conversely, larger global suppliers who want to sell PLCs to customers as part of a more complete system are attempting to hold the price. Both types of suppliers are successful in the market, but typically target different kinds of customers.In the future, larger suppliers to the Asia Pacific market hope that trends that have occurred within other worldwide regions, such as the move for customers to purchase automation products as part of a complete system, will bolster PLC business there, IMS says. In turn, this would limit the potential for local suppliers trying to sell PLCs as a component product.- Edited by Lisa Sutor , Control Engineering daily news desk

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