Emerging Markets
The Middle East is now busy with new projects of all scales after recovering from the recession in 2010. “This
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| Natan Cuglovici, Technical Director of Vault |
year, there are projects for airports and seaports, as well as industrial projects in oil and gas,” said Grahame Edwards, Technical Director in Dubai, Schneider Electric.
The market is equally promising in Turkey. "Turkey is a large country with much potential," said Rustu Arseven, GM of Tesan IletiSim. "This year, we are predicting at least 50-percent growth in our security business."
In Iran, industry players tread cautiously amidst improved market conditions in 2011. "The situation in 2011 is much, much better than 2010 due to less social and political issues," said Mohammad Zarei, Sales Director of Hedayat Security Systems. "However, the situation for 2012 remains murky in our opinion."
Opportunities also abound in Central Asia. "Kazakhstan is a very young country, meaning that there are abundant project opportunities, including major government and large-scale infrastructure projects," said Nikita Panfilov,
CCTV Product Manager, Intant.
Eastern Europeans also agree that the local markets have been recovering from the recession, and 2011 and 2012 will see visible expansions and growing numbers of projects. "In Poland, we follow the general trends in the world, but our market was not affected much," said Monika Mirczewska-Stanosz, Import Manager of Suma. "The growth since recovery has not been as huge as everyone expected, but it didn't drop. Growth in 2011 will be even more than last year."
"The Bulgarian security market has been hit quite hard," observed Georgi Kolev, Sales Manager of Avicam. "The market prefers entry-level products; although 2011 has seen a big growth in sales volume, the margin is actually smaller as cost-effective products were sourced and sold at a higher volume than before."
"In 2011, the growth in Bulgaria is not significant," added Rumen Palmov, Sales Manager of Sectron. "Project-based businesses are still down; large-scale projects were cancelled or postponed, and construction also came to a halt."
On the other hand, the market in Bulgaria is benefiting from its rising crime rate, and people want to employ security systems as they are more affordable nowadays, Kolev said. "The market situation will get better as we go into 2012, and achieve further heights," Palmov said.
In South Africa, the market witnessed a slowdown after the World Cup, said Simpson Jong, MD of KYLink Electronics. "Recently, banks have been strict on approving mortgage applications, which causes further delays
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| Arnon Kulawongvanich, GM of Sales and Marketing, Chubb (a UTC Fire & Security company) |
to ongoing or new projects." The market is dominated by large companies from Europe and the U.S., but Samsung and Sony enjoy sizable market shares as well.
Across the world in Latin America, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago are ready to deliver more products and handle more projects in 2011 and 2012. "The Brazilian market is growing fast and is expected to grow even faster due to upcoming world events," said Natan Cuglovici, Technical Director of Vault.
"Currently, all vertical projects in Argentina are surging, and name brands are used in project-based segments by system integrators (SIs)," observed Roberto Alvarez, President of Selnet.
"There is great demand for security and video surveillance products, as Venezuela suffers from high crime rates," said Antonio Formica, CEO of Segintdig de Venezuela. Fueled by the high demand, interest in new security technologies is much higher than expected.
"The Trinidad and Tobago security market is booming, along with the rest of the Caribbean region," said Jason Fraser, MD of BVRT. The growth has encouraged regional distributors and SIs to visit Asia in person, instead of going through Latin American distributors, in order to source suitable products for the residential market.