Europeans Motoring Along in Chinese Drive Market
Chinese users of motor drives tend to favour brands of European origin according to the results of a user survey compiled and analysed by IMS Research.
One question in the survey asked users to name the brand of drive that they had used in 2007. Of the top five most popular answers, three were the well known European manufacturers; ABB, Siemens and Schneider, which together accounted for some 45% of all responses. Mitsubishi and Fuji of Japan completed the top five with a combined 15%. The remaining 40% was split between a further 22 companies, indicating the fragmented nature of the market beyond the major players.
The dominance of the European brands can perhaps be best explained by users' perceptions of both the products and the suppliers themselves, revealed by additional questioning in the survey. Whilst products manufactured by Asian firms tended to be thought of as less expensive solutions, European counterparts are generally perceived to be industry experts, offering premium quality products.
Quality and industry expertise, or rather the perception of them, plays a seemingly fundamental part in the brand selection process.
