High growth for distributed/remote I/O, but not in Europe

Natick, Massachusetts  – A recently completed market study from VDC Research - titled Industrial Distributed/Remote I/O: Global Market Demand and User Requirements Analysis - forecasts markets in Latin America and Asia-Pacific countries to show the highest market growth rates, while the European market is expected to have the slowest growth rate of all global regions.

The study sizes and forecasts shipments of distributed/remote I/O for use with distributed control systems (DCSs), PC-based control systems and programmable logic controller (PLC) system applications to markets in four geographic regions: Asia-Pacific; Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); Latin America (Mexico, Central and South America); and North America.

The worldwide market for industrial distributed/remote I/O is expected to grow at an annual rate of 8.0% through 2013. Shipments to markets in the Latin America and Asia-Pacific regions are expected to have the fastest growth rates at 13.8% and 9.3% respectively, while shipments to the largest markets, in the EMEA and North American regions, are expected to have below average growth rates.

Latin America – The highest market growth rates are forecast for each of the three product classes in this region. This growth is due in part to the relatively limited current automation investments across the region. However, like the Asia-Pacific region, investment is growing in developing economies of the region.

Asia-Pacific – The shipment growth rates to markets in this region are expected to be the second highest among the four regions for each of the control system types, led by an 11.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in those for use with PC-based control systems. High levels of investment in infrastructure projects – principally water treatment plants, highways, and power plants – are expected to be responsible for this growth, particularly in the developing economies of China and India.

North America – The growth rates of shipments for markets in North America of the products under study are expected to be below the worldwide averages. Slow economic growth in the U.S. is expected to be a contributing factor over the forecast period, along with ongoing off-shoring of manufacturing operations.

Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) – The EMEA market is expected to have the lowest forecast growth rate through 2013 for the three product categories. The majority of shipments are to markets in Europe, which are the most mature in terms of advanced factory automation.

While shipments to the EMEA region are expected to have the slowest growth rate, Europe is considered an early adopter for new technology. For example, shipments of distributed/remote I/O using safety buses/networks are expected to remain the largest to markets in this region. While the other geographic regions are still in the early stages of adopting safety bus/network technology, it has already gained strong support in Europe.