Datamonitor: Global market for automation software to reach $3.6 billion in 2003
According to a new report series from London-based market analysis firm Datamonitor, automation software, with a market value of $1.9 million, is the most dynamic sector of the global automation industry and will be the crucial product for suppliers of large control systems over the next decade.
This has been reflected in the many acquisitions and alliances made and formed by PLC and DCS vendors with process control software companies, and in the major investment in software products made by the automation and control industry.
Datamonitor's Global Automation Software report series also reveals that the global market for automation software is set to reach a value of $3.6 billion in 2003, while the chemicals industry is the largest global end-user of automation software.
According to Datamonitor, the global automation software market has grown at an average annual rate of 22% over the last five years to reach its current value of $1.9 billion.
Growth has been strongest in the Americas, where the impact of new products in the major markets of the United States and Canada and rapid market development in South America increased market value on average by almost one-third every year over the period. In Europe, growth has been slower (at an average annual rate of 21%) as most European markets have been well developed since the mid 1990's and the full impact of recent new product launches -- especially in PC-based DCS -- has not yet been fully seen.
Growth in the Asian market for automation software has been sluggish since the economic crisis in 1997. However, prior to the economic troubles and the collapse in process industry investment, growth was rapid and the market potential in the region remains strong. It is also notable that the market for automation software has continued to show positive growth while the market for other automation products has been in recession.
The report forecasts that the strong growth of recent years is set to continue. By 2003, the global market will have reached a value of over $3.6 billion. Growth will be fastest in the Americas, at an average annual rate of 18.4%, driving the market to reach $1,885 million in 2003. Over the same period, the European market will grow at an average annual rate of 9.8% to hit $1,195 million, while Asia will grow at an average rate of 7.3% to reach $574 million.
Datamonitor automation consultant Martin Atherton says that automation software products will continue to erode the global market for conventional automation products, with PC-based DCS in particular increasing share. "Strong growth in manufacturing software products will also occur as a wider range of manufacturing industries and even service industries become users of real time database, resource management and quality control software products," Atherton says.
According to Datamonitor, one third of the market demand for automation software products now comes from the chemical industry (including the pharmaceutical sector), and a further eight percent from the oil and gas sector. The automotive industry dominates the market for manufacturing automation products, and accounts for 14% of the total automation software market.
Surprisingly, the power generation industry has also become an important market in the most recent years. This has been driven by the change in the nature of the market where projects, particularly in developing countries, now use packaged plant or turnkey installations. SCADA-based systems or PC-based DCS have been found to be ideal in these applications. In conventional plants, automation software products have been widely accepted for peripheral control and monitoring systems.