Control Equipments 1997
  1. The control equipments here mean electric control equipment, and covers electric and electronic equipments used for control purposes in industrial machinery and its systems.
  2. Great strides were made in the industry with the movement towards automatization from 1965 to the late 1970s, and healthy levels of investment in plant and reductions in manpower requirements showed increasing demand for electric control equipments and the appearance one after the other of new products. The 1980s showed Japan change increasingly from being an industrializing society to an information society. There were advances in microelectronics, and use of control equipments grew in a wide variety of industries as new equipment and systems were developed and the market expanded. From the end of the 1980s, expansion of personal consumption and growth in private plant investment due to the buoyant economy supported the rapid growth in demand for control equipments. The collapse of the economic bubble in late 1991, however, lead to a fall in demand, and the following three years were ones of negative growth. Conditions remain harsh, but firm investment in labor-saving technology and the reduction of manning requirements is expected to support expansion in demand in new areas of growth meeting advanced social needs of the 21st century.
  3. Electric control equipments can be broadly divided into the following categories:
    1. Control relays (contact relays, non-contact relays, timers, counters, time switches, etc.)
    2. Operation switches (toggle, slide, push-button, cam and dip switches, etc.)
    3. Detecting switches (contact-type detection switch, non-contact-type detection switch, displacement sensor, FA intelligent sensor, etc.)
    4. Special-purpose control equipments (actuators, contact equipments, power equipments, indication/surveillance equipments, etc.)
    5. Programmable controllers (PCs, programmable displays, FA image processors, etc.)
  4. Shipments of the past five years were as follows:


    		1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
    CONTROL RELAYS 168.4 172.0 180.5 179.4 175.7
    OPERATION SWITCHES 56.3 55.5 57.8 63.1 61.5
    DETECTING SENSORS 110.8 105.4 112.3 120.1 125.9
    SPECIAL-CONTROL EQUIPMENTS
    		 70.7 70.4 72.4 80.5 94.7
    PC 111.0 100.1 105.1 117.5 117.5
    TOTAL 517.2 503.4 528.1 560.6 575.3
    Unit: JPY billion
    Source : Nippon Electric Control Equipment Industries Association (independent statistics)

  5. Average annual growth from 1969 (when the Nippon Electric Control Equipment Industries Association started to produce independent statistics) to 1996 was 10.2%, but growth of 6% is anticipated in the future. Shipments in 2005 are expected to total JPY1 trillion in terms of value, with domestic shipments of JPY700 billion and exports worth JPY300 billion. The components industry looks likely to become the leading industry in the 21st century, and the age of the "two C's" (computers and communications) is expected to become the age of the "three C's" with the addition of "control" technology.
  6. The total value of shipments is currently approximately JPY600 billion, with domestic shipments of JPY450 billion and exports of JPY150 billion. Exports are divided fairly equally between America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
  7. Japanese makers currently have no fear of imports. Over twenty Japanese companies have expanded overseas, but unlike in other industries, they have not moved overseas due to the strong yen and there has been no hollowing out of the industry. Until three or four years ago there were some re-imports of overseas products to Japan, but these have virtually ceased and products made overseas are now sold there. The aim of overseas expansion is therefore to sell products overseas.
  8. Although there are manufacturers in Europe, America and countries such as Taiwan and South Korea, they cannot catch up with Japanese makers for the following reasons:
    1. Makers overseas are generally making special field products only and cannot therefore respond comprehensively to customer needs like Japanese makers. Customers cannot, for example, use only foreign-made sensors and the rest of their parts from Japan.
    2. Japanese makers and dealers provide extremely high levels of service and meet the customer's every demand.
    3. Japanese makers compete against each other and strive to improve their technological capabilities, which are now so advanced that it would take foreign makers some five to ten years or more to catch up. They are capable of responding quickly to new needs.
    4. The user base is extremely broad, and control devices are used in every kind of industry. Rather than simply providing superior service for a number of specific customers, makers provide such service for a large variety of customers. Foreign firms are incapable of establishing such a comprehensive service network.
  9. The quality of control equipments frequently increases further while prices fall (due to rationalized production and competition between Japanese makers). Unlike in other industries, however, the relationship between customers and makers is not a vertical one but a horizontal one. Consequently, customers can rarely beat down prices and makers can maintain the level of added value.
  10. It appears highly that demand in the future will increase due to the development of new uses in various fields. The same applies to exports. According to the Nippon Electric Control Equipment Industries Association, exports in 2005 will be worth JPY300 billion and comprise 30% of total shipments.

    However, the destination of exports in 1995 and 2005 will have changed as follows:


    		 1995 2005

    		EXPORTS(JPY bn) MARKET SHARE EXPORTS(JPY bn) MARKET SHARE
    North America 39.0 7.3% 59.0 7.9%
    EU 38.0 7.2% 56.0 7.5%
    Asia-Pacific 35.0 15.2% 175.0 23.6%
    Others 8.0 6.7% 10.0 7.1%
    Total 120.0
    		300.0
    (Export ratio)
    		 (21.4%)
    		(30.0%)

  11. With its accumulation of technological expertise, the future looks bright for the Japanese control equipment industry, and internationally it is without rival at present.


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