Eastern Europe Offers Growth Pockets for Automation

The economic recession restrained growth in the western European industrial market, which was already reaching maturity. The subsequent transition of the manufacturing base to low-cost Eastern European countries has opened new prospects for market sustainability. This, in turn, is expected to continue offering growth opportunities in Eastern Europe for the automation and control solutions (ACSs) market, according to Katarzyna Owczarczyk, research analyst, Industrial Automation & Process Control, for global research and consulting firmFrost & Sullivan (www.frost.com）。

Revenues from process industries in the ACSs market reached $597.9 million in 2008 and are forecast to exceed $846 million by 2015, Owczarczyk said in a recent press release. A number of factors can be attributed to Eastern Europe’s overall attractiveness, she said, including European Union (EU) membership, a broad industrial and production base, relatively low labor costs and historical and cultural connectivity with the western market and economy.

欧盟标准

加入欧盟的主要因素之一behind positive market opportunities in Eastern Europe, according to Owczarczyk. Many end-users in Eastern Europe, through European Standards, are forced to improve their infrastructure levels to be equivalent to that of western Europe. Eastern Europe has a broad industrial and production base. Many heavy and light industry plants exist, which, once modernized, will constitute good bases for various industrial developments. Additionally, all the factories built under Communism have been privatized. However, they need to be modernized and upgraded.

In 2008, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary accounted for 66 per cent of the Eastern European ACSs market partly because they were able to transform and restructure their economies faster upon joining the EU. They have also been bolstered by the influx of foreign investment, focused on plant retrofits, thereby stimulating the ACSs market growth.

Power, chemicals, and oil and gas accounted for the largest share in the Eastern European ACSs market in 2008. This is attributed to the extensive use of分布式控制系统(DCSs) in these industries in their manufacturing processes. A majority of the new small- or medium-sized facilities, in many chemical and most of the power and oil-and-gas facilities, are likely to prefer typical DCSs, rather than hybrid or a system based on several可编程逻辑控制器（PLC），因为它们的可靠性。

动力驱动器

电力也是ACS增长最快的市场，预计到2015年，其收入将几乎翻一番。东欧的价格上涨，严格的环境目标以及由于退休发电厂退役并增加发电的即将发电的即将发电的危机要求。由于对能源的持续需求以及可再生能源和政府在传输和分销方面的投资以提高整体网络效率并降低传输损失，因此电力将维持稳定性。

The chemicals and oil-and-gas industries are very important in the ACSs market due to existing regulations concerning environmental pollution. However, the chemicals industry, in particular, is expected to be severely affected until 2010 by the economic recession. Food-and-beverage and pulp-and-paper are comparatively smaller markets that are already well developed, but still need further investments to improve plant performance and meet continuously changing standards. PLCs are more commonly used in the food-and-beverage and pulp-and-paper industries as Eastern Europe has a large number of small food manufacturers and paper mills for which more-expensive DCSs are not required.

最小的部门是药物和水和浪费。但是，由于有必要遵守欧盟指令的规定，因此后者具有巨大的增长潜力，以及欧盟基金的可用性，这些基金推动了PLC市场的增长。Owczarczyk说，这是因为价格合理的价格使PLC成为水和废水领域中最常用的自动化组件之一。

Outlook

The Eastern European ACSs market is expected to grow steadily from 2010, driven by growing demand, especially from the power sector. Among Eastern European economies, Slovakia, Romania and Poland have the most favorable growth prospects, while countries such as Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary that have had large external imbalances caused by the economic recession, are expected to witness low or flat growth.

From a product standpoint,制造执行系统(MES) and工业资产管理(IAM) are expected to witness high growth, as they, despite being relatively new in the Eastern European market, experienced high growth despite the economic recession, Owczarczyk said. This growth is mostly driven by the need for production optimization and compliance with quality and regulatory demands.

Frost & Sullivan
www.frost.com

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