Analysis of the Servo Motor Market Size and Brand Competition Status

Modern communication servo systems have undergone a transition from analog to digital, with digital control loops now ubiquitous, such as commutation, current, speed, and position control;

Modern AC servo systems have undergone a transition from analog to digital, with digital control loops now ubiquitous, such as commutation, current, speed, and position control; they use new power semiconductor devices, high-performance DSP plus FPGA, and servo-specific modules. International manufacturers update their servo products every 5 years, new power devices or modules are refreshed every 2 to 2.5 years, and new software algorithms evolve rapidly. In short, product life cycles are becoming shorter and shorter.

In recent years, manufacturers at home and abroad have successively launched new technologies and products for AC servo motion control, such as full closed-loop AC servo drive technology, linear motor drive technology, PCC technology, fieldbus-based AC servo motion control technology, motion control cards, and DSP multi-axis motion controllers. Summarizing the technical and product routes of domestic and foreign servo manufacturers, combined with changes in market demand, some of the latest market trends can be observed.

Market Situation

1. Domestic Market Scale and Basic Trends

The domestic AC servo market size in 2006 was about 2 billion RMB, with a compound annual growth rate of over 25% in recent years, ranking among the fastest-growing automation products. Moreover, as global manufacturing accelerates its shift to China, domestic CNC equipment is rapidly developing towards high performance and high added value under national policy support. The cost-performance ratio of domestic AC servo systems is rapidly improving, and the AC servo system market will continue to maintain rapid growth momentum. It is expected that by 2010, the average annual growth rate will fluctuate around 20%. The user regions for Chinese servo products are mainly distributed in East China, South China, and North China, with the East China market (Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong) accounting for 45%, South China centered on Guangdong and North China centered on Beijing-Tianjin each about 15%. Central China and Northeast China account for about 10%. The East China market is the largest consumer market for servos, and this trend will continue. Currently, the top three purchasing factors for domestic users are stability and reliability, price, and service. This also indicates that the domestic AC servo market is still at a relatively low level, and full utilization of performance and functions is not yet a priority. In the long run, the key success factors for servo manufacturers should be product cost-performance ratio, reliability, technological content, market share, and brand influence.

2. Domestic Market Brand Competition Status

The current brand competition situation in the domestic AC servo market is very similar to the inverter market more than 10 years ago. At that time, imported products (mainly Japan's Fuji and SanKen) occupied more than 90% of the market share. After 10 years of effort, domestic inverters have occupied the mid-to-low-end market, sharing the overall market with imported products, and a group of capable and technically proficient manufacturers have emerged, among which Leadfar has achieved an absolute leading advantage in the high-power inverter segment. Domestic AC servo motion control manufacturers, while learning advanced foreign technologies, have also developed some patented and general-purpose products suitable for special industry applications, receiving good market feedback. From the manufacturers' perspective, Japanese brands have certain price advantages and meet the performance needs of Chinese small machinery OEMs, so in this survey, Panasonic, Mitsubishi Electric, Yaskawa, and Sanyo have occupied nearly half of the entire AC servo motion control product market, leading the market. Additionally, others like Fuji and Omron also perform well in some industrial fields, driving the development of their other product series. Compared with other imported products, Japanese AC servo products have advantages in price, specialization, and system integration. From this perspective, the brand evolution of AC servo control products will be dominated by Japanese brands for a considerable time. European and American brands such as Siemens, Rexroth, and Lenze hold certain shares in high-end equipment and production lines, characterized by high performance and high prices, with Siemens being the most typical. Other European and American brands like AB, Schneider, Danaher, Kirby, GE, and B&R maintain rapid growth in their specific fields. In the past 2 to 3 years, Taiwanese servo manufacturers have set up factories domestically and increased market promotion efforts, mainly Delta and TECO. Their technical and price levels are between imported mid-range products and domestic brands, emphasizing cost-performance advantages in competition, bringing new competitive pressure to domestic brands, with market share rising from negligible a few years ago to about 5%. Domestic Chinese brands mainly include Hollysys Motor, Huazhong CNC, GSK, Lanzhou Motor, and recently emerging manufacturers such as Nanjing Estun, Shanghai Ordos, Lichuan, and JaBao. Roughly calculated, there are no fewer than 20 domestic manufacturers claiming to have launched AC servo products.

Looking ahead, with the continuous decline in servo prices and increasing market acceptance of AC servos, the mid-to-low-end market has very large growth potential, so local manufacturers will still have great opportunities; meanwhile, Taiwanese and Japanese manufacturers will also benefit from the overall market expansion. The market share of European and American brands will gradually decline but will still maintain high gross margins. Domestic brands not only lag behind in product performance, quality, and variety but also face huge gaps in technical reserves, production capacity, and capital strength that cannot be bridged overnight. For domestic brands to break through, besides patience and continuous investment, they also need to adopt differentiated competitive strategies.

In summary, Chinese brand manufacturers face both huge challenges and development opportunities, with a long way to go.

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