High power drives market still increasing - report

Adverse conditions have failed to affect the European High Power Rated Drives market, although there are still more challenges ahead, warns Frost and Sullivan.

Adverse conditions have failed to affect the European High Power Rated Drives market, although there are still more challenges ahead, warns Frost and Sullivan.

The latest research by the market analysts at Frost and Sullivan, (http://motors.frost.com), found the market was worth $427.5 million in 2000, an increase of 2.9 percent on the previous year.

An estimated 18,200 units were shipped in that year.

Frost and Sullivan forecasts these values will increase to $533.7 million and 23,300 unit shipments in 2007.

But, manufacturers will have to continue to deal with customer demands for technical advances, low user awareness, and market domination by large companies.

"The customer is always keen to incorporate the latest technologies in the purchase of drives," explains Frost and Sullivan Research Analyst, Sean French.

"In order to satisfy customers, manufacturers must ensure drives are at least level with the present technologies on offer from competitors and that the price is competitive." "In this context, drive manufacturers must maintain technological advancements, whilst ensuring prices remain competitive.

Often manufactures have to bear the costs of researching new drives and cannot pass on premiums to customers in the form of price increases, owing to the fiercely competitive nature of the market." "Manufacturers also need to address low user awareness of the long-term savings.

A high power rated drive will involve a considerable investment from the customer and this has discouraged potential sales in the past.

The energy savings gained from using a drive will no doubt benefit potential customers, but in some cases these are ignored due to the initial cost of a drive." "Payback for investing in more expensive high power rated drives does take time to realise and many potential customers are not prepared to make this kind of initial investment.

Manufacturers of high power drives must convince customers of the benefits of using advanced drive technology." The European High Power Rated Drives: Power Rating Analysis is the second deliverable from Frost and Sullivan's European Electric Drives Market Service : a new wide-reading market research service aimed at providing a fundamental analysis of all aspects the market.

The high power rated drives market has been defined as all electrical drives that have a power rating exceeding 75kW.

The market includes alternating current (AC) drives and direct current (DC) drives.

The research found the high power rated AC drives market was estimated to represent 70.4 percent, or $300.9 million, of the revenues from the total high power rated drives market in 2000.

The largest market for high power rated AC drives was for those rated from 75kW to 250kW with 44.2 percent of the total market revenues, a figure that has been increasing primarily owing to greater demand for AC drive technology.

"High power rated AC drive technology has moved at a fast pace over the last few years," Mr French continues.

"demand for electric drives has been driven by the move towards higher levels of efficiency and greater customer understanding of the technology.

However, growth in revenues has not been as fast as the rise in demand, due mainly to the adverse pressure of failing prices as a result of the high levels of competition." The high power rated DC drives market was valued at $126.6 million.

It has suffered because in a number of applications DC drives have been replaced by AC technology.

Nevertheless, despite concerns that the DC drive would become obsolete, the technology continues to find use in a range of core areas.

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