Summary

The programmable logic controller (PLC) market was valued at USD 11.21 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 15.15 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 4.7% over the forecast period (2021 - 2026). The COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the major economies across the world, has greatly influenced the market’s growth during 2020. Country-wise lockdown restrictions inflicted by the governments across the globe (to minimize the spread of the virus) has further resulted in industries taking a hit and disruption in supply chain and manufacturing operations across the world.

Key Highlights
Almost all enterprises in the end-user industries had closed access to their sites amid the lockdown restrictions. They have tried to maintain operations only with minimal staff. Owing to this, these enterprises had experienced a rapid decline in revenue. However, the operations in various end-user industries are expected to reach the previous optimal position over the course of the next two quarters.The deployment of PLC systems enables the identification and rectification of errors and can initiate rapid responses even without human intervention. Hence, these automated PLC systems are estimated to assist in reducing the machine downtime from 20% to almost 4%.
Increased adoption of automation systems is driving the market. A major growth indicator for PLCs in the discrete-manufacturing sectors is the amplified deployment of robots for automation across the automotive manufacturing, the electrical, and the electronics industries. The sales figures for industrial robots have increased almost four-fold since 2009. With robots being a major end-user of PLCs, the market is expected to greatly benefit from the global robotics boom.
The market studied is strongly impacted by the industrial output and the investment funneled into the computers and software. These PLC systems have traditionally been the foundation of both process and discrete factory automation. The growing adoption of Industry 4.0 across the industrial verticals has augmented the market studied.
Difficult to find errors and lack of skillful workforce is restraining the market to grow, as communication error can occur anytime between the programmable computer and the devices which demand for skillfull workforce to rectifiy the error.


Key Market Trends

Automotive to Hold Significant Share for the Future Demand


PLC has been adopted at the manufacturing stage to handle the ever-growing demands of the automotive industry. It was initially used as a relay replacement equipment in the automotive industry.
The demand for automobiles has been increasing steadily, The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) at the University of Duisberg-Essen has predicted that the global annual growth of cars is expected at 2.2%. Owing to such potential growth, better production facilities enabled with automation are needed, which is expected to fuel the growth of PLCs in the domain.
The automobile industry finds many PLC applications from the product application view and the most significant amount of medium-sized PLC. Some forms of the PLC are mostly at the electric car's former disposal in the application. Recently, Emerson launched an industry-first controller designed for automation versatility and IIoT-enabled operations.
With the advent of other technologies, such as machine vision, collaborative robots, artificial intelligence for driverless/autonomous cars, cognitive computing in IoT-connected cars, the PLC market in automotive is expected to grow further.


North America Leads in Innovation and Demand


The United States is estimated to hold a major share in North America owing to rise in industrial investment in the mining and oil & gas sectors, which fuelled the utilization of PLCs, thereby propelling the market growth. SCADA is widely applied in the upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas sectors in the United States. In the upstream sector, its role is often stereotyped as being largely in support of remote data transmission. However, due to the wide and varied use of SCADA , the demand of PLC will increase effectively.
The dominance is also buoyed by smart manufacturing initiatives, such as the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition (SMLC), that drives and facilitates the broad adoption of manufacturing intelligence and automation. The next generation of urban infrastructure is on the horizon and as the technologies of the Internet of Things has become increasingly high with Industry 4.0, one can soon expect to see local authorities relying on it to improve living, working and travelling conditions. The government is focusing on smart city development and there will be a high demand of industrial digital computer in coming years.
The formation of the ‘Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP)’ is one such initiative undertaken to make industries, universities, and the federal governments invest in emerging technologies. This factor has helped the country to gain a competitive edge in the global economy and with increasing automation, the demand of PLC will rise in future.


Competitive Landscape

The PLC market is highly competitive and consists of several major players. In terms of market share, few of the major players currently dominate the market. These major players with a prominent share in the market are focusing on expanding their customer base across foreign countries. These companies are leveraging on strategic collaborative initiatives to increase their market share and increase their profitability. Key players are ABB Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Schneider Electric SE, etc. Recent developments in the market are -


December 2020, the US Department of Defense and the Australian Department of Defence partnered to develop an air-breathing hypersonic missile called the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE). This is expected to advance air-breathing hypersonic technologies by designing, building and test-flying multiple prototypes.
April 2020 - Omron released its new CP2E Series all-in-one controller that provides advanced control that enables IIoT connectivity for compact machines. The controller improves manufacturing productivity and quality by making it easy to visualize the performance and data of connected machines through simple programming.


Additional Benefits:

The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
3 months of analyst support

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