The latest medium-voltage (MV) motor drive study from IHS indicates that drive sales increased by 8% in 2013 with widely diverging growth rates by region.
In 2012, strong MV sales growth in North America offset weaker sales in China, which resulted in global MV drive sales growing by 6% to $2.6 billion.
In North America, the development of shale gas and oil has led to stronger MV drive sales in the American oil and gas industry. IHS predicts that MV drive sales growth in the Americas will remain above 14.5% in 2013 and 9.5% in 2014. The outlook for the American MV drives market is highly dependent on how the oil and gas industry performs. IHS estimates that in 2012 over 35% of American MV drive sales went into the oil and gas industry.
MV drive sales growth is predicted to slow in 2014, primarily as an accelerated build out slows as North American governments come to an agreement on the future of LNG exports and further pipeline expansion across the United States.
In Asia Pacific, China made up two-thirds of the MV drives market by revenue in 2012, while the rest of Asia made up about one-third. Each region exhibited widely diverging MV drive sales growth in 2012. In China, overcapacity in metals, cement and shipbuilding resulted in weaker MV drive sales in 2012, while in the rest of Asia, MV drive sales grew rapidly in 2012, led by sales of MV drives in Southeast Asia, excluding Australia.
In 2014, MV drive sales growth is predicted to increase in China as a different set of industries begin to demand MV drives, while in the Americas, a resurgent Latin America and continued strength in the United States and Canada is predicted to result in the Americas growing fastest globally in 2014.
