Forward View
Indian welding market continues to be dominated by manual equipment
T
he Indian welding market is dominated by the use of manual welding equipment. However, this situation is expected to change as several end-user industries have started demanding automated equipment to support higher productivity. Robust expansion of the Indian shipbuilding, construction and energy, particularly wind power, sectors will underline strong growth of the Indian welding market over the medium- and long-term.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, finds that the market earned revenues of $208.0 million in 2008 and estimates this to reach $311.5 million in 2015. “While the financial meltdown has adversely affected most end user industries for welding equipment in India, energy, construction and shipbuilding sectors have, to a large extent, been recession-proof and have been generating moderate demand,” notes Frost & Sullivan Senior Research
Analyst Archana Chauhan. “A key driver boosting market revenues has also been the gradual move from manual to automatic and semi-automatic welding equipment.” The welding industry in India has generally been low technology with infrequent innovation. However, the adoption of automatic and the semi- automatic welding systems has been rising in recent years. At the same time, the recession and reduced budgets have underlined the continued popularity of economical, manual techniques. Enhanced foreign direct investment
(FDI) equity inflow in India has supported projects in the oil and gas sector, offshore activities, aerospace and heavy machinery industries. Several foreign automobile companies have established their manufacturing base in India. Such trends have had a positive impact on the uptake of welding equipment and consumables. However, the recession has affected the
flow of FDI into the country. Hence, demand for welding equipment in India is expected to decline over the short-term. Although global steel demand slumped in the past year, India’s steel market has experienced nearly 10 per cent growth. The demand for steel is promoting the use of innovative steel while triggering the uptake of high volumes of welding equipment. Another challenge faced by Indian welding equipment manufacturers is the unorganised sector that occupies close to 50 to 55 per cent of the market. This is growing due to the lack of specifications and approvals required for welding activities in end-user industries. Although some approvals are required for high-risk jobs in power and offshore, there are no such requirements in the fabrication industry where welding finds extensive use. l
For more information, visit
www.frost.com
Asia-Pacific semiconductors defy downturn C
ombined revenue for semiconductor suppliers headquartered in the Asia-Pacific region actually grew by 2.3 per cent in 2009 to reach $44.5 billion, up from $43.5 billion in 2008. In contrast, global semiconductor revenue in 2009 fell by 11.7 per cent to $229.9 billion, down from $260.2 billion in 2008.
“In a dismal year for the chip industry, suppliers based in Asia-Pacific managed to eke out some growth in 2009 as they focused on hot semiconductor products and capitalised on strong demand from the region,” said Dale Ford, senior vice president, market intelligence services, for iSuppli. “These companies represented some of the leading players in hot-selling product segments in 2009, including NAND flash and Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs).” Shipments of semiconductors to Asia- Pacific declined by only 5.3 per cent in 2009 — by far the best performance of any major worldwide region for the year. In contrast, Japan’s revenue fell by 20.7 per
cent, Europe-Middle East-Africa declined by 20.5 per cent and the Americas region decreased by 10.5 per cent.
Only two major semiconductor product segments escaped the downturn of 2009: LEDs and NAND flash memory. With expanding demand from mobile products such as cell phones, the NAND Flash market grew by more than 15 per cent in 2009. LEDs saw a rapid rise in adoption in a wide range of applications, especially in backlighting of LCD-TVs, causing their revenue to rise by more than 5 per cent. This particularly benefitted the South
Korean companies that concentrate on these products. Leading NAND flash suppliers Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc were the only semiconductor suppliers among the world’s Top 10 chipmakers to achieve growth for the year. Meanwhile, LED maker Seoul Semiconductor Inc. saw its revenues leap by nearly 90 per cent for the year. South Korean-headquartered semiconductor suppliers collectively
achieved 3.6 percent revenue growth in 2009. More than three-quarters of all South Korean suppliers tracked by iSuppli posted revenue growth in 2009.
The same product and demand trends also benefitted Taiwanese suppliers in 2009, with suppliers based in the country collectively expanding their revenue by 1.1 per cent during the year. More than half of Taiwanese suppliers achieved revenue growth in 2009. MediaTek, Nanya Technology and Macronix International led the way for Taiwan with growth of 22.6 per cent, 21.2 percent and 14.4 per cent, respectively, for the year.
“While 2009 was a difficult year for the semiconductor business, it could have been much worse, based on the state of the market in the first quarter,” Ford said. “However, on a sequential quarterly growth basis, the market finished the year on a very strong note." l
For more information, visit
www.isuppli.co
www.engineerlive.com 9
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