Low Voltage Motor Control Center Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The low voltage motor control center (LVMCC) market was valued at USD 3699.6 million in 2020, and it is expected to reach USD 4456.95 million by 2025, registering a CAGR of 3.2%, during the period of 2021 - 2026. The global market is expected to register a significant growth of the low voltage motor control center due to an increase in industrial automation and the rise in demand for low voltage electric motors across industries.

Key Highlights

• The ongoing trend in industrial automation, and rules and regulations regarding energy reserves are driving the market for an intelligent MCC. Vendors have witnessed increasing investments in this arena via, multiple product launches, acquiring IIoT software-based companies, and collaborations. For instance, Rockwell Automation’s Centerline LV motor control centers (MCCs) offer information exchange through its IntelliCENTER technology. This fosters communication between plant-floor devices and business-level systems to increase productivity and improve worker safety.
• High labor and and competitive rivalry have triggered the demand for high energy efficient control systems to reduce the resource wastage and enhance the workforce efficiency. Heavy industries, like oil and gas, metal and mining, and petrochemical, among others are observing increased investments in power management solutions. The Asian renewable investment in the future is expected to level the upstream oil and gas spending in the region. India, China, Australia, Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea have been identified as regions to significantly contribute to such development.
• Maintenance and monitoring of industrial low-voltage motor control center is precedence task and might hinder the widespread applications across industries. Additionally, the replacement cost is expensive and result in fewer replacement sales. For instance, Suisun Solano Water Authority estimated USD 134,000 - USD 141,000 as a single MCC replacement cost. With most of the water utilities deploying nearly 3-4 MCCs at a facility, the cost from an end user perspective becomes huge.

Key Market Trends

Oil and Gas Refineries to Witness the Significant Growth

• Low voltage motor control centers are used in oil and gas refineries to centrally control the electric motors driving various industrial processes such as pumping, production and processing, air compressors, drilling, etc.
• According to the recent report published by the National Petroleum Council (NPC) in the United States total, global energy demand will grow by 50% to 60% between 2019 to 2030. Hence, oil companies would boost its production to meet the surging demand and fuel the growth of low-voltage and medium-voltage control center in the sector.
• Moreover, many global companies are also innovating new features in their low voltage motor offerings, in order to target a vast range of applications in the sector. For instance, in 2019, ABB launched its new low voltage IEC (LV) flameproof motors in frame sizes 80-132 that offer the same safety and efficiency features usually found in the company’s larger products. The company has developed these motors, especially for use in hazardous and explosive oil and gas industry environments, such as in offshore oil rig.
• Increased emphasis on safety of the workforce has led to deployment of small and low power robots many areas, which has indirectly fueled the growth of IMCC units, as they are required to control the robots. Furthermore, domestic production plants across the Middle Eastern and American regions are anticipated to increase in number, despite the price changes to cater to the surging demand, according to industry experts.

Asia-Pacific is Expected to Grow Significantly

Asia-Pacific is one of the most significant markets for the LV motors and LV MCC. The region offers massive growth potentials to the studied market vendors, owing to the growing adoption of automation across the various end-user industries in the region. The energy concern in the region is also increasing the adoption of low voltage electrical equipment and motivating many companies to develop energy-efficient and compact electrical equipment and devices, hence further driving the studied market growth.

• Manufacturing is a major contributor to China's economy and is undergoing a rapid transformation. The industrial control system in the country has emerged across various fields, like the energy, transportation, water, and municipal sectors. Due to the deep integration and rapid development of the IoT, the networked control system is becoming the development trend of industrial automation in China, which is further developing space for the intelligent motor control centers too.
• Asian countries are experiencing factory automation shift to make manufacturing processes more efficient and reduce defect rates. For instance, Korean government is focusing on smart manufacturing and is planning to have 30,000 fully-automated manufacturing companies by 2025. The government aims to achieve this by incorporating the latest automation, data exchange, and IoT technologies
• Moreover, due to low-cost benefits, many of the global manufacturers are shifting their manufacturing facilities in South East Asia. Although the IMCC penetration in this region is low when compared to the other regions, government initiatives to adopt connected technologies with respect to the expansion of the manufacturing sector along with automation can be viewed as a potential boost for the IMCC market over the forecast period.
• The breakout of COVID-19, with significant impact on Chinese production, is likely to impact the market for LV MCC. This maybe because of reduced production and, thereby, sales. Order backlogs are expected to arise because of such unavoidable situations, which is likely to increase the cost of the equipment.

Competitive Landscape

The low voltage motor control center market is competitive and is dominated by a few major players like ABB Ltd, Schneider Electric, Siemens AG, Rockwell Automation Inc., and Eaton Corporation PLC. These major players with a prominent share in the market are focusing on expanding their customer base across foreign countries. These companies are leveraging strategic collaborative initiatives to increase their market share and increase their profitability. However, with technological advancements and product innovations, mid-size to smaller companies are increasing their market presence by securing new contracts and by tapping new markets.

February 2020 - Eaton Corporation and Abunayyan Holding formed a joint venture, to produce and service low and medium voltage switchgear in the Middle East. The venture may operate as Eaton Arabia in locations in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Dammam, and Saudi Arabia.

January 2020 - Rockwell launched the new motor protection circuit breakers that offer space, time, and cost savings. The circuit breakers are enabled by UL approval for use in group installation. This type of installation can reduce panel space, installation and wiring time, and overall costs by eliminating the need for individual branch short-circuit protective devices for each motor circuit.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
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