Ethernet market growing in Asia Pacific region

According to IMS Research, the adoption of Ethernet in the Asia Pacific region is growing faster than in either EMEA or the Americas. Worldwide, Ethernet-based technologies will account for over 26% of all new networked nodes connected in industry in 2015.

January 25, 2012

Use of Ethernet-based technologies in industrial communications will grow faster than use of fieldbus, especially in the Asia-Pacific region; according to a new report from IMS Research. This is largely driven by the need to improve efficiency as currency and wage pressures sound warning bells, threatening the cost advantage that has fueled the meteoric growth of manufacturing in the region.

The report was compiled from data collected during the second half of 2011, including input from the many specialist industrial reports published by IMS Research. Overall, 16 industrial product types were analysed for networking connectivity, with many segmentations, including by region: EMEA, Americas and Asia Pacific. The worldwide growth in the installation of new Ethernet based nodes was forecast to be 13% CAGR from 2010 to 2015; regional growth rates were 11% in EMEA, 10.4% in the Americas, 18.6% in Asia Pacific.

“The faster growth in the Asia Pacific region is not unexpected”, commented John Morse, the senior analyst who wrote the report, “However, the rate of growth seems to be gathering pace in the recovery from the 2008/9 recession”. Morse noted that the competitive advantage countries in the region have enjoyed for decades was under threat by saying, “The Asia-Pacific growth rate is high despite the pressure on local manufacturing costs from increasing wages in the growing economies of Asia, most notably China. In addition, the demand for products from both America and Europe is currently slowing, adding an additional threat to the economies of scale needed to maintain profitability. I am aware of some Western companies that are considering bringing manufacturing facilities back home, citing that the cost advantages of outsourcing have been substantially reduced in recent times.”

Morse added, “The market in Japan is somewhat different and has been much slower to adopt Ethernet-based communication technologies in industry. Even there, this is changing with the introduction of CC-Link IE, a Gigabit technology form Mitsubishi Electric; and with extensive promotion by other organizations including ODVA and Profibus International promoting Ethernet/IP and PROFINET respectively."

IMS Research

www.imsresearch.com