Process industry automation growth continued in 2007 with robust investments in manufacturing and infrastructure industries. Automation expenditures in the process industries reached $45.5bn dollars in 2007 and is forecasted to exceed $61bn by 2012. Emerging economies, such as those in Brazil, Russia, India, China, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, helped propel this growth with increasing consumer demand from the growing global middle class, a healthy lending environment for capital investments that project solid returns, and the need for producing and saving energy to cope with rapidly rising energy demands and costs across the globe. Growth in emerging Asia remained exceptionally strong in the first half of 2007. The regional expansion was led by China, where real GDP grew robustly as exports and investments accelerated, and by India, where gains in domestic demand, particularly investments, underpinned strong growth.
Source: ARC Advisory Group