World UPS Market Continues to Recover

AUSTIN TX -- After experiencing severe declines following the global recession in 2009, the UPS market turned around in 2010 with revenues 8.3% higher than in 2009. IMS Research’s recently published report “The World Market for Uninterruptible Power Supplies – 2011” shows that recovery continues, following the severe cutbacks in IT expenditures and new project builds.

Much of 2010’s growth was driven by the developing BRIC countries of China and India, and to some degree, Brazil; all experienced marked revenue surges. Latin America was the only region to surpass pre-recessionary levels, and Asia is expected to do the same in 2011, as Asia’s revenues fell much harder than Latin America’s in 2009. Since China and India experienced such strong growth in 2010, IMS Research projects their revenue growth will taper off, as pent up demand is met and the economies return to more sustainable growth. Still, Asia’s and Latin America’s UPS markets are forecast to grow faster than the world’s five-year annual average of 7.4%, and to play a major part in reaching the $10 billion dollar mark by 2015.

“Since China and India began leading the recovery in 2009, it is no wonder why 2010 was such a great year for Asia’s UPS revenues,” explains IMS Research market analyst, Lori Lewis. “Latin America has a lot of potential in the upcoming years. Even after seeing the tremendous upswing of over 20% revenues in 2010, the region will continue seeing high growth compared with the rest of the world. With the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games to be held in Brazil, we should expect to see Latin America’s UPS market benefit from the need for additional infrastructure.”

The North American and Western European UPS markets managed to show some growth in 2010, but there remains some worry as to how and when these more developed regions will fully recover from the recession. “Stimulus money ran out before these markets had a chance to fully recover; so spending is still tight and fears continue over a possible double- dip recession” says Lewis. “It’s doubtful that we will see the same rate of UPS market growth in these regions as before the recession. It appears that companies have become much more cautious when it comes to IT spending.” By 2015, however, these regions are expected to be back to or have exceeded pre-recessionary revenue levels through steadily but slowly growing demand.

“The recovery of the UPS market should continue progressively as long as financial markets remain stable” states Lewis. “Sales in the high power segments will soon grow faster, as capital frees up for large projects and the market shifts towards higher power needs in the future. The bigger the project, the bigger the UPS revenues.”