Fluid Power Market Witnessing Spur In Demand

With demonetisation & GST effect waning and the spend on infrastructure increasing, the fluid power industry, especially the mobile hydraulics, is likely to witness remarkable expansion in the coming years.

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The fluid power industry is experiencing a robust growth aided by the rising demand for construction equipment in the infrastructure projects and steady need from other sectors. The fluid power industry has three large segments - mobile hydraulics, industrial hydraulics and pneumatics. Historically, the mobile hydraulic segment has been the largest, accounting for about 50-60 percent of total fluid power sales, while industrial hydraulic and pneumatic segments are nearly of the same size.

The current global fluid power market is estimated at about $25 billion. While Asia accounts for over 40 percent of the global fluid power market, India's share, however, is about 4 percent with estimated turnover of Rs 6000 crore. Looking at the GDP growth of India, the country will be one of the growth engines of Asia Pacific.

According to the Fluid Power Society of India (FPSI), of the total fluid power market in India, the pneumatic sector accounts for approximately Rs 1,600 crores. There is a large unorganised sector comprising of over 30 percent of the market share.

The industry had two remarkable periods of growth in the last 14 years. The average annual growth rate between 1987 and 1990 was 9.5 percent. Between 1993 and 1995, annual growth averaged 12 percent. These high rates resulted primarily from growth in existing markets, but the introduction of electrohydraulic and electropneumatic technologies opened up new market, such as active suspension on automobiles and reestablished the industry in older markets, such as robotics, that had been lost to exclusively electronic technology in the early 1980s.