IMS Research forecasts that EMEA sales of machine tool equipment will steadily increase to over €18.9 billion by 2011, growing at around 4.5 per cent per year. However, the medical end-user sector is expected to register the strongest growth, at some 7.6 per cent per year.
Don Tait, a senior analyst at IMS and the report author, comments "This sector is the third largest market for the machine tool industry defined in this report, and was estimated to be worth €1.3billion in EMEA in 2005, or 8.6 per cent of the total market. The medical equipment sector is predicted to continue to experience healthy growth rates of between 7 and 10 per cent per year, depending on the equipment type. This strong growth is projected to continue over the next five years, and reflects the increasing demand for high-precision, machined medical products. The market for medical equipment will drive growth in the demand for electrical discharge machine [EDM] tools. Such machine tools are increasingly being used in the production of prosthetics such as hip replacements and artificial human parts.
"The use of faster, more accurate and more automated machine tool equipment in the industry can only be expected to rise, to improve capital efficiency and reduce labour costs. Technical innovation is enticing producers to replace obsolete mechanical solutions with more versatile handling through robotics and more extensive use of PLCs, servos and machine vision. Apart from higher output, these offer greater flexibility and improved process control."
