The world programmable logic controller (PLC) market, which had been hit hard by the world recession during 2009, has turned to a slight recovery in 2010, according to a recent report from IMS Research (Shanghai, China). The world PLC market was estimated at $6.3 billion in 2009; and is forecast to increase by $0.6 billion in 2010. However, revenues are not forecast to return to the 2008 level until 2012.
According to market analyst Alex Hong, “Some uncertain factors still remain. For example, with concerns over sovereign debt in several countries in Europe, and with government austerity measures to address them, we cannot yet rule out a double-dip recession.” In such a circumstance, the PLC market might turn down again.
However, business confidence is a more important factor. Many PLC manufacturers’ business recovered slightly in early 2010, as many plans and projects, which were stopped in 2009, were reactivated. In addition, PLC manufacturers believe their business will have a strong recovery after 2010 and hope that it will soon get back to the level of 2008.
The growth of the PLC market depends on different industries in different regions. For example, Japanese PLC manufacturers rely heavily rely on the performance of their LED/LCD and semiconductor industries. Car production is a major driving force in the EMEA market, whilst textile machinery is the biggest machine-builder sector in the Asia-Pacific market. All these industries performed badly in 2009; but are showing a healthy but slow recovery in 2010, and will be the pillars to support PLC manufacturers as they seek to regain their business.
Posted by Vision Systems Design
