Companies & Markets: European Modular Instrumentation Markets

October 20, 2011

Tools

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The global economic slowdown took its toll on many industries in 2009, resulting in a decline of 19.1 per cent in revenues for modular instrument vendors in Europe. While this affected the level of sales of modular instrument vendors that year, it has also brought back the focus of end users on lowering test costs. The continued struggles of several European countries such as Greece and Spain and the decelerating manufacturing growth rates in key countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom and France are expected to continue to drive the industry shift from traditional instrumentation to modular instrumentation in Europe.

Market expansion will be due mainly to demand from the automotive industry, growth of contract manufacturing in eastern Europe and demand from the telecom design industry in Scandinavia. There is a large automotive footprint in Europe, particularly Germany, that is driving demand for modular instrumentation. With many DUTs becoming multi-channel, the adoption of modular instrumentation in the automotive industry is bond to increase. The demand from the automotive industry is not purely from the manufacturing environment but also for R&D purposes. In this context, another driver in Europe is the telecom design industry in Scandinavia. While modular instrumentation is predominantly used in manufacturing applications, it has made significant inroads in R&D applications as well, especially in design verification and validation, in the recent past. Germany is the European leader for R&D spending due to the presence of industry leaders in the automotive, aerospace, pharmaceuticals and energy industries.

The economic conditions in Europe continue to be a matter of concern to many industries. Economic conditions in the region are still fragile in countries such as Greece, Spain, Italy and Republic of Ireland, while the manufacturing sector in many other countries such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom is witnessing a slowdown. During times of economic hardship, capital expenditures in test and measurement equipment can be severely affected. However, there is now a key difference in the market compared to the last downturn in that it caused customers to re-evaluate their test strategy so as to identify the best way to lower their cost of test, favouring modular instrumentation over traditional instrumentation.

European Modular Instrumentation Markets

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