AC drives market growth

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January 2011 Other technologies

Recovering from the deepest global downturn in recent history, ARC expects the low power AC drives market to resume steady growth through 2014.

According to a new ARC Advisory Group study, this trend will be due to growing investments in the infrastructure and manufacturing industries worldwide, additional requirements to increase the energy supply to keep up with rising demand, and pressure from industry to deploy sustainability solutions that reduce costs by saving energy.

“Emerging economies, such as those in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries and Eastern Europe, will again have increasing consumer demand from the growing middle class, more investments pouring into new infrastructures, and the need for producing and saving energy to cope with rising energy demands and costs in the future. This situation will bode well for low power AC drives market growth,” says senior analyst Himanshu Shah, principal author of ARC’s 'Low power AC drives worldwide outlook'.

Productivity and globalisation accelerate growth

Manufacturers continually face challenges to raise productivity, lower product costs, reduce plant operating expenses, and increase return on investment in order to compete in the global market. Saving energy will be the key component for most organisations to be successful and profitable as energy costs are expected to rise. Consequently, capital investments for low power AC drives are expected to grow across many industries as these solutions simultaneously save energy and raise productivity of machinery by providing better and more precise speed control.

Globalisation is driving the use of advanced automation and energy-saving equipment worldwide. This will directly result in an increased use of low power AC drives, which are widely employed across process and infrastructure industries such as building automation, chemicals, oil and gas, food and beverage, textiles, utilities, water and wastewater, and metals.

Energy volatility and scarcity, as well as sustainability, are affecting automation in a wide range of industries. Requirements for increased safety, regulatory compliances, sustainability, and energy savings are substantially impacting the design and capabilities of low power AC drives.

Regional scenarios

Asia’s strong demand for energy created turmoil in oil pricing. Crude oil prices that reached nearly $150 per barrel in mid 2008 were back down to moderate levels in the early part of 2009. The world, however, got the taste of very high oil prices, which created a major awareness of the importance of new sources of energy, alternative energies, and energy savings; and the importance of the use of low power AC drives. Energy scarcity is driving initiatives for energy saving and energy production which will boost the deployment of low power AC drives.

While every world region will experience growth in the low power AC drives market over the forecast period, there are significantly different factors affecting this market growth.

For more information contact Kim Coffman, ARC Advisory Group, +27 (0)11 508 634 8551, [email protected], www.arcweb.com

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