Drives & Controls October 2022

36 n PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MOTION CONTROL October 2022 www.drivesncontrols.com New opportunities emerge for motion controls M otion control technologies such as servomotors are used in all industries where precise, controlled movements are required. When we consider specific applications and industries, it becomes clear that the market has strengths in certain sectors, and that it is continually evolving. Let’s take a look. Traditionally, the industrial machinery sector has accounted for the biggest chunk of the motion controls market. Machine tools manufacturers and semiconductor machinery makers have been among the biggest buyers of this equipment. The metal-cutting machinery sector is still the largest consumer of motion control products, generating revenues worth $3.6bn in 2021. Semiconductor and electronics machinery, packaging machinery, industrial robots and metal-forming machinery together accounted for £8.7bn of sales in 2021 – around 60% of the total. These industries will maintain their position as the leading buyers of motion control technologies, but demand from other sectors is growing significantly. The unstoppable rise of e-commerce has boosted the need for warehouse automation and this has resulted in a huge rise in demand for mobile robot technologies. Around 100,000 mobile robots were shipped during 2021, and there is no sign of any let-up in demand. Our projections for indicate significant growth in sales of motion controls to the mobile robot sector, with a CAGR of 52% in the period to 2026. This is way ahead of sales to the textiles machinery industry, which is predicted to generate the second-highest demand (with a CAGR of 5.7%). The third, material-handling equipment, will see a CAGR of 5.6%. Our research indicates that by 2026 up to a million mobile robots could be needed every year. This could create a huge opportunity for suppliers of motion control products. Prices stabilising Shortages of parts and materials, as well as price increases for rawmaterials and components, meant that there was an across- the-board increase in the prices of motion control products during 2021. This will continue into 2022. We predict that the average price of motion control products will rise from $570 in 2020 to $640 in 2022. Location is a significant factor in pricing with, unsurprisingly, suppliers based in the Asia- Pacific region applying smaller increases. Between 2020 and 2021, the average price rise in this region was 4.6%, compared with more than 7% for the Americas and Japan, and higher than 6% for the EMEA region. Beyond 2022, we anticipate that prices will be relatively stable, with only small fluctuations. We do not expect to see any significant price cuts being passed on to buyers in the period to 2026. Since 2018, major motion controls suppliers based in the Asia-Pacific region have generally performed better than their counterparts in other regions. The main driver has been China, which accounted for more than 77% of the region’s demand for motion control products in 2020 as machine-builders boosted the sophistication and performance of their machinery. Between 2018 and 2021, the top four suppliers stayed the same, but Siemens’ market share fell by almost 3%, and could have fallen even further had it not had a strong presence in the burgeoning Chinese market. Although the top four suppliers stay the same, there are signs that the market is becoming slightly less consolidated. In 2018, the top 10 suppliers had a combined market share of 68.8%. This fell to 65% in 2021. Some suppliers have increased market share since 2018, including the Chinese firm Inovance (whose share grew by 2.5%) and Taiwan-based Delta Electronics (with a 2.4% rise). n The global motion controls market is expected to grow by 9.1% this year and will continue to expand as new applications emerge. Tim Dawson, senior research director and principal analyst for in the industrial automation team at Interact Analysis, examines what lies ahead for this sector. The metal-cutting machinery sector continues to be the biggest buyer of motion control products globally. But the next two markets – electronics and packaging machinery – are growing faster. Source: Interact Analysis After rising sharply during the past two years, average prices for motion control products are expected to stabilise over the next few years. The grey bars show revenues; the blue line indicates average selling prices (right-hand axis). Source: Interact Analysis