The bleak short-term forecast for the global economy will directly impact the low-power AC drives market growth during the next couple of years. However, moderate growth is expected to resume during the latter part of the five year forecast period. The moderate growth will be due to investments in infrastructure and manufacturing industries worldwide, once the financial stability is restored globally, according to a new ARC Advisory Group study.
“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,” according to senior analyst Himanshu Shah (hshah@arcweb.com), the principal author of ARC’s “Low-Power AC Drive Worldwide Outlook” (www.arcweb.com/res/aclo).
Energy Savings and Globalization Will Drive Market Growth
Manufacturers continually face challenges to raise productivity, lower product costs, reduce plant operating expenses, and increase return on investment (ROI) in order to compete in the global market. Saving energy will be the key component for the most organizations to be successful and profitable as it will lower energy costs which are expected to rise. Consequently, capital investments for low-power AC drives are expected to resume across many industries as they lower the costs by saving energy and raise productivity of machinery with better speed control.
Globalization 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, discrete, and infrastructure industries such as building automation, chemicals, oil & gas, food & beverage, textiles, utilities, water & wastewater, and metals.
Regional Scenarios
Asia’s strong demand for energy created turmoil in oil pricing in 2008. Crude oil prices reached nearly $150 per barrel in mid 2008 and was back down to a moderate level at the early part of 2009. The world, however, got the taste of very high oil prices and created high 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 low-power AC drives’ use.
While every world region will experience growth in the low-power AC drives market over the forecast period, there are significantly different factors are affecting this market growth. A brief description regarding the economic scenarios for each major world area is covered in this report.
In addition to the quantitative assessment of the low-power AC drive market, the report provides an insightful analysis of the market and strategies of leading suppliers that will impact this business in the future.
For more information on this study, go to: www.arcweb.com/res/aclo.
