Emerging markets
Eastern promise?
Anne Wendel, director of the VDMA Machine Vision Group, writes on the opportunities and threats Asia presents for European machine vision suppliers
T
he major growth impetus for the European machine vision industry – and the mechanical engineering industry as a
whole, as well as important customer industries – has come from emerging markets and in particular from Asia. In 2014, according to VDMA figures, German machinery exports to Asia amounted to almost €39 billion and thus 26 per cent of the overall exports (€151.5 billion, according to VDMA figures). China sticks out with 11.2 per cent of total exports and is therefore already the most important export market for the German mechanical engineering industry, followed by the USA (10 per cent), France (6.5 per cent), UK (4.5 per cent) and Russia (4.3 per cent). For machine vision, the picture is similar: in 2014, according to the companies surveyed, exports of European machine vision products to Asia grew by 18.6 per cent and the share of total turnover was 20.1 per cent. China accounted for 7 per cent of total sales and was again the third largest market for European machine vision companies, aſter Germany and USA. Tere are no world market figures available for machine vision. Terefore, one can only guess
8 Imaging and Machine Vision Europe • Yearbook 2015/2016
how the Chinese machine vision market has been developing over the last few years. However, figures are available for the Chinese robotics market, and they give a good estimation of developments in the overall level of automation. According to the International Federation of
Robotics (IFR), China is by far the biggest and fastest growing robot market worldwide. In 2013, almost 37,000 industrial robots were sold in China. Chinese robot suppliers installed about 9,000 units according to information from the China Robot Industry Alliance (CRIA), and the sales volume was almost three times higher than in 2012. Between 2008 and 2013, the total supply of industrial robots increased by about 36 per cent per year on average, and in 2013, every fiſth robot sold in the world was installed in China. In 2014, sales of robots to China increased again considerably, by almost 54 per cent. Te automotive industry, above all, has
been investing heavily in China, although other industry sectors have also been gaining importance. Chinese companies have to undergo modernisation and automate processes in order to become competitive worldwide. Rising wages
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