Asia: The road ahead

Learn how industry leaders and other senior executives view their industry’s competitiveness around Asia, including insights that examine the highly complex forces driving the current and future of metalworking manufacturing and many of the structural changes reshaping Asia’s economy.

Steve Bell

General Manager, ASEAN, Renishaw (Singapore) Pte. Ltd

First of all I should say that I’m speaking only for the ASEAN region specifically, rather than Asia in general. My first comment would be that despite a lot of talk of weakening demand and clear evidence of it in certain areas, sales across the range of Renishaw products has remained strong throughout 2013, leading in fact to some record sales months for the region within the last half year.

Sales of CMM probing systems and associated metrology products have been particularly strong across the whole of ASEAN. Demand for machine tool probing solutions remains high particularly in the automotive market in Indonesia and Thailand. We also see growth in machine tool products for high end applications in Singapore in both the Oil & Gas and Aerospace sectors.

The field of metal powder Additive Manufacturing technology continues to create ever increasing interest in Singapore and surrounding countries. Renishaw are constantly exploring new ideas and innovations to make this technology more and more relevant as a viable alternative to traditional machining for small batch manufacturing and other niche applications.

We are of the opinion that the general economic outlook for the ASEAN region remains strong regardless of any localised short term problems or even current concerns about global demand. Inward investment into the developing ASEAN countries looks set to increase the production base in the region and Renishaw feels well placed to provide innovative metrology and manufacturing for that growing demand.

Naruto Takahashi

Managing Director, Mitsubishi Materials Thailand

Mitsubishi Material’s main target market for their products in Vietnam is predominantly automotive sector in the northern part of the country, and the motorcycles manufacturers operating more in the south. Takahashi pointed out that the automotive sector in Vietnam is not showing any significant growth at the moment, but motorcycle manufacture [parts and assembly] grew by about 10% last year which keeps them positive about the country’s future growth.

Naruto went onto say that Mitsubishi Materials have been providing turning, milling and drilling solution to Vietnam for almost fifteen years, and this year the company will be opening an office in Hanoi, which will make their marketing efforts a lot more aggressive in the coming years.

“Presently, Mitsubishi’s main Vietnamese customers are predominately Japanese companies operating some form of manufacturing here in Vietnam, but the company is looking at expanding more into the domestic market as the country’s supportive industries develop and mature.”

Craig Charlton

Senior Vice President &General Manager for Asia Pacific of Epicor Software Corp.