Emerging markets RUSSIA REMAINS STRONG EMERGING MARKET FOR VISION
Russia is one of the big emerging markets for machine vision, but the current political and economic environment adds a complexity to doing business in the country. Greg Blackman speaks to Alexei Matveev, head of Business Media Russia, organisers of the Vision Russia trade fair
Russia represents a promising emerging market for machine vision with growth in aerospace, scientific research, defence, security, and traffic monitoring. While the current political and economic environment is making business complicated between Russia and the EU, there are opportunities for machine vision companies in the country, according to Alexei Matveev, head of Business Media Russia, the representative office of Messe Stuttgart in Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia and the Baltic States. ‘On the one hand now we are
facing a difficult time [with trade barriers],’ he said, ‘but on the other hand this is a challenge and an opportunity to develop the [vision]
market in high gear,’ adding that there are still a lot of market prospects in Russia. ‘The market for high technological
products is growing and foreign companies interested in the Russian market continue to do business here,’ he continued. ‘The newcomers are a little bit cautious about approaching the Russian market considering the new political and economical environment, but still they are able to find the demand for their products in Russia as this is a big emerging market. Business and government are making efforts to support further technological advancement. Hopefully, we will overcome the current situation with trade barriers quickly.’
Business Media Russia supported
by Messe Stuttgart organised the Vision Russia pavilion and conference, which took place from 17 to 18 June 2015 in Moscow. The show was held in parallel to Semicon Russia, an exhibition for microelectronics and semiconductors. The programme
selective fields of attention. According to the study, rapid market growth and increasing awareness of the strategic importance of the machine vision segment in China can be expected in the near future and political attention is yet to come. Another challenge is
increasing competition and price pressure. European machine vision companies are known for high-quality products – and quality has its price. Becoming faster, more accurate, smarter, smaller, easier to use and integrate are mentioned when speaking with European suppliers. But cheaper? For a long time, price has seemed to be only a secondary matter. Critical comments such as ‘over-engineering’ have been heard for years, as well as increasing competition – in particular in Asia – but is this an issue? Demand has been growing for years nevertheless. According to VDMA figures, China has already become the third strongest supplier for engineering products for the German market and thus outperformed France and the USA. It is surely only a matter of time until machine vision products made and designed in China will become widely available, around the world and in Europe as well.
featured the latest turn-key machine vision solutions, including integration in semiconductor production. Matveev commented that there is demand in Russia in areas such as transport, security, research and scientific imaging systems, sports for motion studies, medicine, and high- speed imaging. He added that there are various industrial applications, including testing of weapons and aircraft engines, automotive crash testing, and diagnostics and adjustment of high speed production and packaging lines. He gave the example of one of the members of an industrial association called ‘Mega’ delivering thousands of devices with machine vision components to car services. The Mega association is an industrial partner with Business Media Russia and supported Vision Russia, as they considered it to be a necessary tool for the Russian market renovation, Matveev said. ‘Today, we can count about 40 to 50 companies working in the
For a long time,
price has seemed to be only a secondary matter
per cent in 2014. For 2015, companies expect further growth of 11 per cent. Looking at the market surveys of past years, it becomes clear that machine vision in Europe is still very automotive-oriented, with Germany playing an important role (in 2014, automotive had a share of 21 per cent of total turnover of the European machine vision sector). Non- industrial applications have also been growing above average,
17 per cent in 2014, raising the share of non- industrial applications in overall turnover to almost 25 per cent. Growth in the European vision market is
European vision sector still strong In 2014, the European machine vision industry broke all records. According to the latest VDMA market survey, the sector turnover grew by 16
mainly export driven; in 2014, sales outside of Europe grew by 20 per cent. North America (14 per cent share of total sales, 21 per cent more than in 2013) and Asia (20 per cent share of total sales and 19 per cent more than in 2013) were the driving forces behind growth. China (7 per cent of total sales, 13 per cent more than in 2013) was again the third biggest market for European machine vision companies. Te overall export share of European machine vision suppliers was 37 per cent. In 2014, sales in almost all European countries recovered and total turnover in Europe grew by 14 per cent. Germany was again by far the largest market for European machine vision companies with a share of almost 34 per cent of the total sales and an increase in turnover of more than 12 per cent.
10 Imaging and Machine Vision Europe • Yearbook 2015/2016
Russian machine vision market,’ Matveev said. ‘The majority of them are distributors of cameras, often using Russian software to deliver a final technological product or service. There are also several Russian manufacturers of machine vision equipment and products. It’s good to acknowledge that the level of tasks and applications has noticeably risen.’ Matveev said that renewed
development of manufacturing capacities in Russia will see growth in machine vision systems and technologies. ‘It’s high time to stimulate further market development together with the local and international commercial companies, governmental and R&D institutions,’ he commented. ‘We have a burst of activity… in machine vision and optics, but the market is still emerging and needs to be guided by world experience and know-how in this sphere. At the moment we are building bridges both with European and Asian markets: China, Taiwan and Japan.’
Increasing standardisation, simplification
and intuitive user interfaces, greater efficiency, improved computer performance, and miniaturisation remain growth drivers for machine vision. However, new competitors are emerging, not only in China and not only from within the machine vision community – is the European machine vision community ready to compete with the smart phones and apps of the future? Furthermore, can European companies be sure that in the future customers will stay with them if they can get ‘good enough’ products elsewhere? Te topics of China and frugal innovations will be addressed at the next VDMA machine vision summit in October 2015. Te European machine vision industry is sure to find answers to these questions and add yet another chapter in the success story of European machine vision. O
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anne Wendel is director of the VDMA Machine Vision Group, which, as part of VDMA Robotics and Automation, unites more than 110 members. VDMA is present in important export markets for the German mechanical industry, such as Brazil, China, India, Japan and Russia.
www.vdma.com/vision
@imveurope
www.imveurope.com
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