Summary

The Europe Conveyors Market is expected to register a CAGR of 10.79% over the forecast period from 2020 to 2025. Due to high labor costs, significant companies in Europe are expected to adopt conveyors. The growing drive toward increased output leads to greater adoption of these systems compared to substitutes, such as forklifts, because of their ease of installation and safety. Multiple industrial hubs in Europe, such as Germany, have witnessed a rise in the automotive industry where the assembly line production is automated. Conveyor systems reduce unnecessary practices involved in material shifting and help eliminate the idle time in carrying material between two assembly points.

Key Highlights
The European market is triggered by innovative products, logistical changes, or consumer shifts; hence, the sales outlets have already undergone several structural changes. With multiple per-capita levels of retail space and relatively low productivity, highly mature markets are at a comparatively higher risk of experiencing a contraction in the future. Hence, retailers are increasingly investing in automated storage, thereby contributing considerably toward saving the retail space. The growth in warehouse automation adoption rates, such as conveyors in this region, is mainly fueled by the rapid increase in e-commerce and retail investments.
Driven by the national and global e-commerce market growth, there has been an advancement in parcels' volume growth in the region. According to the 2019 European E-commerce Report, the increase in online sales was more than 13%, and the estimated total sales were EUR 621 billion. In November 2019, Deutsche Post DHL Group also opened a mega parcel center in Bochum with a sorting capacity of up to 50,000 shipments per hour. Further, Royal Mail installed automated machinery, consisting of conveyor belts and scanning technology, in its Bristol center in July 2019, to speed up the sorting of parcels. The company is planning to increase the use of machines for sorting parcels to 80% within that time, up from the current rate of 12%.
In September 2019, QC Conveyors announced expanding its product offering to include the Motion06 curve belt conveyor modules. Motion06, an Austria-based company, joined the Duravant LLC via acquisition, and along with QC Conveyors, is part of Duravant's Material Handling Solutions group. The Motion06 curve belt conveyors allow users to maintain product orientation in applications where a turn is required between two straight conveyors. By keeping the same product orientation at both the infeed and outfeed, the conveyors ensure the product is delivered in the perfect exposure for applications that require consistently faced product.
With the outbreak of COVID-19, European restaurants are reopening amid challenging conditions such as infection waves, mandated reductions in seating capacity, and consumer safety concerns. Contactless dining will make restaurants to operate with fewer challenges and more confidence. In July 2020, Yo!, a Japanese restaurant chain, announced to launch its upgraded conveyor belt at 18 sites across the United Kingdom. Customers visiting the restaurants will experience a contactless process as part of the Government's safety guidelines. Diners will scan a QR code and order and pay for their food via their phone's digital menu. Dishes freshly prepared in each store's kitchen will arrive straight to the guest on the new conveyor belt.


Key Market Trends

Airports are Expected to Hold Significant Growth


Conveyors and sortation systems are also widely used in the airport industry to satisfy the increasing demand for reliability and sorting speed to handle all baggage (from check-in to loading into the luggage hold). Baggage handling conveyors are extensively used in all the country's airports, especially in Heathrow, the United Kingdom's busiest airport. Post-Brexit, the level of continued consolidation, the convergence of low-cost and full-service business models, and Europe's openness to foreign-carrier competition and control continue to intensify pressure on the European airport industry.
Domestic airlines in Europe are continually investing in product improvements and customer service by employing automated conveyors, sorters, and automated storage systems. For instance, since December 2019, London Stansted Airport has been investing EUR 59 million in a new baggage delivery system, updating the massive network of conveyor belts and lifts underneath the main terminal, which transports up to 30,000 bags every day. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
The increase in global passenger volumes and the need to facilitate more flights with shorter connection times increase the number of automated solutions at airports. Fives Group, a significant intralogistics service provider, has installed a wide range of sortation technologies across various airports in France. The flexibility of sorter layouts allows tailor-made solutions to be designed to satisfy the customers' requirements. Alstef, another player in conveyor and sortation systems, installed the first cross-belt sorter in France for baggage-sorting application. The sorter can process up to 8,000 bags per hour, depending on the configuration.
As Europe's economies have come to a standstill due to the outbreak of COVID-19, so has the European airport network. Restrictions to travel and lockdowns imposed by countries in the region and airlines grounding most of the fleet have resulted in passenger traffic at Europe's airports falling off a cliff. According to Airport Council International (ACI), passenger traffic fell by -59.5% during March 2020, dragging the first quarter passenger traffic down by -21%. But while Europe's airports still handled 5.1 million passengers on 1 March (-11.7% compared to the same day in 2019), the traffic had reduced to 174 thousand by 31 March (-97.1% compared to the same day in 2019). However, once the lockdown is lifted, the air traffic's normalcy is expected to attain gradually by the end of 2020.


Germany is Expected to Hold Significant Share


The German automotive industry has been leading the technological innovations in the global automotive industry, integrating smart technologies. The strong support from the government and increasing investments from leading automobile manufacturers, such as BMW, Ford, among others, in the last few years, have brought significant transformations in the country's automotive sector. In June 2020, Tesla Inc. announced rework plans for its factory located near Berlin and ensured its first European plant could produce cars in about a year. The company assumes that within the first half of 2021, cars will be rolling off the conveyor belt there.
The food and beverage segment is expected to account for a significant share in Germany. In October 2019, SEW-EURODRIVE (Pty) Ltd. supplied 64 MOVIGEAR servo motors to a major OEM that, in turn, designed, manufactured, and provided a weighing conveyor system to a German-based company in the frozen fish and vegetable packing sector. The system is equipped with a central conveyor fed by eight small conveyors, each containing the various frozen-food products mixed according to the specification. Each conveyor has a separate load cell to determine the exact weight of the component products.
To be competitive, most SMEs in Germany employ automatic conveyors to reduce costs, thus, increasing the scope for conveyors in the sector. Dorner Europe started manufacturing 2200 Series Conveyors at their factory in Jülich, Germany. This step enabled customers throughout Europe to take delivery of their equipment much faster compared to earlier. In February 2019, Dorner Europe set-up and assembled an order for twenty-five 2200 Series iDrive Conveyors, integrating with the robot. The iDrive conveyor is used for integrating with other machines and robots because of the space-saving integrated motor.
In December 2019, SSI Schaefer's customer service team completed the project for Office Depot to adapt the system in the distribution center in Germany to the company's current challenges. With the two latest conveying system loops by SSI Schaefer, seven loops are installed in the logistics center. There, the target cartons and source bins are transported and distributed between storage locations, shipping preparation, picking stations, and goods-out. The smartly adapted bypasses relieve the system and ensure higher throughput of the shipping cartons on the almost 5km conveying system.


Competitive Landscape

The European Conveyors market is highly competitive, owing to the presence of multiple domestic companies. The market appears to be moderately fragmented, with significant players adopting strategies like product innovation and mergers and acquisitions. Some of the market's major players are SSI Schaefer AG, Mecalux SA, BEUMER Group GmbH & Co. KG, etc.


January 2020 - Misumi, a global manufacturer, and provider of mechanical components and indirect materials for unique machine construction and assembly automation, has commissioned SSI Schaefer to implement a new logistics center in Frankfurt. All work stations will be connected to the system with a high-performance conveying system.
October 2019 - Material handling provider Interroll has acquired significant parts of the business activities and assets of IBH ehf. in Reykjavik, Iceland. The move is expected to strengthen the company's sales and service activities in the food and beverage sector, particularly in the fish processing industry.


Additional Benefits:

The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
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