Record-high energy costs boosting drives market

Recordhigh energy prices and greater awareness of the energy saving of motor drives helped expand the market by nearly 15% over 2005 to more than $7.6 billion. The market should grow 9% per year to surpass $11.2 billion by 2011.

The Asia Pacific motor-drives market, lead by China and India, was the fastest growing segment. The size of the Asia Pacific market will likely surpass that of the Americas market this year, and continue growing by more than 10% per year over the next five years. The EMEA (Europe, Mideast, and Africa) market also experienced growth in 2006. The Americas and Japanese markets for motor drives performed well, but grew slower than Asia Pacific and EMEA.

Commercial HVAC, food & beverage, metal processing, textiles, and utilities continued to lead the market, together representing more than one-third of the low-voltage drives market.