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Asia-Pacific Gets a Lift in Industrial Hydraulics

ControlDesign.com
12/09/2011

The world market for hydraulic components used in industrial applications is expected to reach nearly $9 billion by the end of this year, bringing numbers back to 2008 levels. The hydraulic component market recovered almost two-thirds of those revenues with a 2.5% gain in 2010, and looks to be growing an additional 13% this year, according to IMS Research.

But while revenues are returning to familiar levels, the geographic makeup of those returns is not quite so customary. The proportion of the market accounted for by each major region continues to change significantly, IMS analysts said.

As of 2008, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) represented more than 40% of the industrial market for hydraulic components. The market size for that region was estimated at $3.6 billion, which was 10% larger than Asia-Pacific ($895 million). However, following the 2009 market decline and subsequent recovery in 2010, the sustained momentum of Chinese industry had effectively offset the 40% contractions seen in Japan so that Asia-Pacific accounted for almost 35% of global revenues. This represented a market share increase of almost 5% in two years.

“In 2010, EMEA was still the largest market for industrial hydraulic components, despite losing over 3% share to Asia since 2008,” said Robert Carter, principal analyst. “Sustained recovery of the European market in 2011, combined with high demand from within Middle Eastern oil, gas and mining sectors after 2012, will add significant growth stimulus to the EMEA market, and slow the rate at which Asia increases global share.”

However, this is only a delay in what Carter sees as an inevitable change in regional market ranking. “Current indications are that the market for industrial hydraulic components in Asia is set to exceed that of EMEA in 2014, at which point Asia-Pacific will be the largest market, exceeding $3.9 billion,” he said.