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Product category: Engineering Industry Reports and Surveys
News Release from: Frost and Sullivan
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 15 October 2002

Gearboxes and geared motors markets in
Europe

A new survey reveals that the gearboxes and geared motors market, a $2.82 billion industry across Europe in 2001, still holds hidden scope for growth.

Despite challenging market conditions and a degree of weak business confidence amid the depressed economic climate, the gearboxes and geared motors market, a $2.82 billion industry across Europe in 2001, still holds hidden scope for growth A new study by Frost and Sullivan, the international marketing consulting company, identifies early signals of growing investment across the industry, sustaining demand for increasingly sophisticated technology and more reliable and efficient power transmission technologies

Total revenues are forecast to reach $3.98 billion in 2008.

The increasing popularity of complete and customised solutions, boasting a higher degree of energy-efficiency and compactness, is prompting growth in the overall market.

However, stiffening competition on a global scale is forcing manufacturers to deliver higher efficiency and more value-added features with more attractively priced products, leading to lower price/performance ratios.

"Despite its advancing maturity, the European market for gearboxes and geared motors still exhibits scope for substantial growth opportunities", notes Ozan Dogruer, Research Analyst at Frost and Sullivan.

"The planetary gearboxes market is expected to witness the strongest advance in future years, drawing strength from greater acceptance and demand for the technology across the European base and strong interest from the energy sector.

Additionally, owing to rising demand for medium and heavy duty applications, the helical gearboxes sector should reinforce its dominance in total market terms and also record good market growth".

Gabriela Martinho, the study's co-author, points out that many European manufacturers still face pressures to improve profitability in order to remain competitive pushes them to reduce their costs and improve efficiency.

The greatest pressures have been seen in the geared motors field, nevertheless there is still scope for optimism.

Gabriela Martinho comments, "Mounting pressure to upgrade to newer and more advanced technology is anticipated to further entice demand.

However, while geared motors in general are expected to see a lower growth rate than the gearboxes segment, helical geared motors are anticipated to gain from demand for more efficient technology and the continued trend towards the use of combined geared motors solutions at lower power ratings".

The industry-wide requirements for cost-cutting measures have rendered end-users highly price conscious.

With all major companies offering equivalent quality levels, price has become one of the primary purchasing factors and competitive pressures have resulted in the continuing trend to consolidation of supply.

Several mergers and acquisitions have taken place in this market over recent years, yet the sector still has only produced three companies holding a significant share of the market, namely SEW-Eurodrive, Flender and Bonfiglioli.

The remaining 64.1% of revenues was generated by companies with shares below the 5.0% mark.

The mechanical handling sector accounted for the share of revenues of the European gearboxes and geared motors market in 2001.

This sector benefits from significant orders for heavy-duty items which represent for a high proportion of this sector's overall revenues.

Although the mechanical handling sector's share of the overall gearboxes and geared motors market is anticipated to decrease slightly, this sector should remain the largest single application area in 2008.

Frost and Sullivan's study observes a distinct need for high reliability, performance and quality in the mechanical arena.

However, some users may shift their interest towards alternative technologies like variable speed drives and variable speed motors.

In looking at regional trends, followed by Italy and France, Germany represented the largest share of revenues in 2001, supported on the back of its large, mainly export-oriented, OEM base.

Due to the highly developed nature of the nation's industrial sector, the level of investment in new gearboxes and geared motors in the German market is expected to stabilise and fall slightly below that of the other regions under review towards the end of the forecast period.

The study's analysis of geographical markets concludes that the increase in demand is expected to be strong across some regions, with Spain holding the highest growth potential of all markets as investment in new technology and wind turbine installations should be considerable.

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