Market Research and Development Trend of Motion Controller Industry in China, 2015-2020

3. Market of Motion Controller in China
3.1 Overview on Development
The original controllers are special controllers that run independently without supports from processor and operating system and can complete independently motion control function, man-machine interactive function and other functions required by processing, such controllers are specially designed for numerical control machine and other automation equipment, cannot be used across-industrially regardless of specific processing requirement and users cannot restructure their own motion control system according to application requirements, so the development of universal motion controller will become necessary requirement of market.

As one important branch of automation technology, universal control technology has been developing rapidly since 1990, and driven by strong market demand, universal control technology are applied extensively. In recent years, with the constant progress and improvement of motion control technology, universal motion controller has been accepted by more and more industries as one independent motion controlling product. Motion controller also has developed from the ones taking single chip processor, microprocessor or special chip as core processor to open motion controllers taking DSP and FPGA based on PC bus as core processor. Motion control technology also has developed from special motion control technology facing traditional numerical control and processing industries to the advanced motion control technology that has open structures and realizes fast restructuring according to specific application requirements.

Through many years of promotion and use, the application of motion control products in China becomes popularized increasingly and industry scale expands rapidly. Meanwhile, more than one hundred of domestic brands spring up, mainly concentrating into coastal areas, such as, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong and Shanghai etc. Compared with developed countries, the motion controller enterprises still lag behind relatively, although there are many domestic brands, their production and sales scale is small and they are restricted by technology, capital and management level etc, so their comprehensive competitiveness is weak.

In recent years, under the support and guidance by national industry policies, some domestic brands increase investment constantly, which makes the R&D, production scale and overall product performance improved considerably. These enterprises still have not the strength of comprehensively competing with the first-class brands in Euro-America countries, but they has shown obvious advantages in segmented products and markets, market shares increase year by year and the market pattern of motion controller formerly dominated by foreign brands in China has been changed gradually.

3.2 Supply and Demand
With the increasingly close combination of information technology, mechanical device and power equipment, motion control technology develops rapidly. The role of big manufacturing country of China has distinctively outlined the promising prospect of rapid development of industrial machinery, while, the bandwagon of automation upgrading of industrial machinery also adds fuel to the rapid development of motion control market. the supply of motion controller increases by over 20% year by year, in 2014, the market supply of motion controllers in China was 1.0051 million sets, increasing by 22.36% over last year.

Tab.1: Market Supply Volume of Motion Controller in China, 2010-2014

Source: China Association of Automation and Huidian Research

The rapid development of machine tool, textile, printing, package and electronics etc industries drives the demand for motion controller. In 2010-2014, the demand for motion controller increased steadily, increasing from 541,300 sets in2010 to 1.0694 million sets in 2014, the growth rate maintained at about 18%.

3.3 Competition Pattern
At present, the local motion controller enterprises, such as: Googol Technology, Shanghai Weihong and Leadshine Technology etc, mainly target to middle and low end market, while Euro-America Enterprises mainly target to high-end markets, in overall, the market shares of local enterprises has exceeded 50%.

In addition, control card develops rapidly in recent years, mainly because the open system, reasonable performance and low price are especially suitable to China market. In the field of control card, the local enterprises have gradually come to the forefront, the leading enterprises include Googol Technology, Leadshine Technology, ADTECH, Leetro, Automation Co., Ltd and Shanghai Weihong etc, these enterprises also provides special controller for some segment industries. In which, Googol Technology has dominative advantages in segmented fields, in 2014, the market shares hit 49.42%.