n NEWS February 2025 www.drivesncontrols.com 10 REVENUES FROM THE global motion controls market slumped by 6.9% during 2024, representing a drop of more than $900m to a total of $12.3bn. This fall followed a period of unprecedented growth. However, in a new report on the market, Interact Analysis suggests that its long-term CAGR will remain largely the same, at around 3.5%, indicating a rebalancing of the market, rather than something worse. It states that 2024 was “a rough year for motion control vendors”, however, it believes that the market is starting to stabilise. The report traces the origins of the 2024 decline to 2021 when the sector experienced “unprecedented” growth. Demand was at an alltime high, and motion control suppliers couldn’t manufacture products fast enough. Buyers were keen to place orders, but struggled to obtain products because of supply shortages. Panic buying set in, with customers over-ordering motion control products during 2021 and 2022. As the manufacturing sector dipped in 2023, the motion controls market started to show the eect of over-ordering in the previous two years. Order backlogs were worked through and it became clear that new orders for motion control products were falling. Buyers’ inventories of motion control components were full and manufacturing demand was down, resulting in an inventory issue. This led to a decoupling between the growth of manufacturing and that of the motion control market, leading to further market declines and destocking. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, growth in the motion controls market had closely mtched that of manufacturing output. But in 2021, when over-ordering began, the two became decoupled. That year, the motion controls market expanded by almost 22% year-onyear. In late 2023, growth in manufacturing production and the motion control market intersected, marking the start of the destocking eect. That year, the motion market grew by just 1% and it became clear that, amid low manufacturing production, motion control buyers had overstocked and needed to wind down their inventories before placing new orders. This set the stage for the signicant decline in revenues experienced by motion control vendors last year. Before Covid, Interact had been predicting a CAGR of 3.5% for the motion controls sector from 2019-2023. Despite the sharp gains and losses between 2020 and 2024, the analyst believes that the market will still follow the same long-term trajectory and CAGR in the period from 2019-2029. Interact expects manufacturing production and the motion controls market to synchronise again this year, indicating market stability. But 2025 is likely to be mixed in terms of regional performance, with Europe continuing to face challenges. However, every region is expected to start recovering as destocking ends and growth in new orders resumes. “Following the high growth years in 2021 and 2022, it is easy to lose sight of what ‘normal’ growth looks like in this market,” comments Interact research analyst, Clara Sipes. “While double-digit declines in some regions are alarming, they should be viewed in the historical context of the market as a correction. As destocking in the market eases, we expect a sense of normalcy to return marked by more modest and consistent growth rates. 2025 marks the rst year climbing out of the market trough, and while it will be a slow process, the prognosis for the market in 2026 and beyond is much brighter.” www.interactanalysis.com Motion controls sales fell by 6.9% in 2024 in ‘rough year’ for vendors ABB IS BUYING Siemens Gamesa’s power electronics business in Spain to strengthen its position in the booming market for highpower energy conversion technologies. The acquisition will expand ABB’s power conversion product and service oering to renewables OEMs and end-users, with new portfolio and engineering assets expected to drive the protable growth of ABB’s Motion business. No nancial details have been released about the deal, which is expected to close in the second half of 2025. The Gamesa Electric power electronics business achieved revenues of around €170m in the year to September 2024. It has around 400 employees, and factories in Madrid and Valencia. Gamesa’s power conversion portfolio includes doubly-fed induction generator wind converters, industrial battery energy storage systems and utility-scale solar power inverters. “This targeted acquisition is in line with our commitments to grow our portfolio for high-power renewable applications and support productivity in a low-carbon world,” says Chris Poynter, president of ABB’s System Drives division. “It will expand our engineering depth for power conversion and grid connection, and will add signicant opportunity to service a large installed base. “With the acquisition of this business,” he adds, “we will be much better positioned to capitalise on the expansion of the power conversion market for renewables, while building on our relationship with Siemens Gamesa as a key customer.” The acquisition will increase ABB’s serviceable power conversion installed base by around 40GW, allowing it to access new service, modernisation and repowering opportunities around the world. Gamesa’s expertise will also help ABB to broaden its digital oering. The International Energy Agency estimates that annual additions to the world’s global renewable energy capacity will expand from 666GW in 2024 to almost 940 GW by 2030. Solar photovoltaic and wind energy together are expected to account for 95% of all renewable capacity growth by the end of the decade, when renewable energy is expected to account for almost half of all global electricity generation, with wind and solar PV doubling their share to 30%. Global motion controls market, showing revenues (solid bars, left axis, $m) and revenue changes (black line, right axis, percent). Source: Interact ABB buys Siemens Gamesa’s power electronics business
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