Market for Computer Numerical Controls to Reach $4.6 Billion

The Computer Numerical Controls (CNC) market will experience high volatility over the next five years as market demands shift. The worldwide market for CNCs is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.9 percent over the next five years. The market was $4.45 billion in 2005 and is forecasted to be over $4.60 billion in 2010, according to a new ARC Advisory Group study.

The CNC market will experience significant fluctuations over the next five years as rapid growth turns to rapid decline across the industrialized nations, but companies in developing regions continue to increase purchases, keeping the market in positive growth. ARC predicts that the emerging markets will help to smooth this cycle through continued and rapid growth. However, the effects to this market will not be fully realized for many years,” according to Analyst Stefan Surpitski, the principal author of ARC’s “CNC Worldwide Outlook”.

CNC suppliers focused solely on performance have been left out of the recent growth explosion taking place in China, Korea, Taiwan, and India. These markets are consuming low-end to mid-range machines and are more focused on price than capabilities. The large suppliers have addressed this market well and because of the relative size of their corporate infrastructure, are also able to offer excellent service and sales support. The top three suppliers dominate sales into these emerging regions.

Competition among the top three suppliers is aggressive as the developing Asian market begins to heat up. All of the top suppliers have applications which are designed to target Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Indian markets, which are now buying low-end CNC controls. Factories in these emerging markets are buying these controls in great numbers and the unit sales in these countries greatly eclipses the unit sales in other world regions for several of the suppliers operating in the CNC control market.

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