Business Services Industry

Booming Services Market Offers Tremendous Growth Potential for ACS Providers in the Southern African Metals and Mining Industry

Business Wire, Sept 21, 2007

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c69146) has announced the addition of the new Frost & Sullivan Report "Automation and Control Solutions (ACS) in the Southern African Metal and Mining Industry" to their offering.

This Frost & Sullivan research service entitled Automation and Control Solutions (ACS) in the Southern African Metal and Mining Industry provides a detailed examination of the following technologies: manufacturing execution systems (MES), distributed control systems (DCS), programmable logic controllers (PLC) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. In this research service, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts offer an exhaustive examination of key market drivers, restraints and trends as well as in-depth product analysis.

While the metals and mining industry in Southern Africa is experiencing robust growth on the back of strong commodity prices driven by the rising demand for minerals in Asia, the industry is faced with a shortage of skilled labour at the end-user level, making mining companies more dependent on the expertise of automation and control solutions (ACS) providers. This has, in turn, created a massive market for services, as end users are increasingly looking to suppliers to provide the needed services.

In addition to buoyant commodity prices in global markets, renewed investment in Greenfield projects and the expansion of existing mines and processing plants will ensure the continual generation of revenues from the sale of ACS to the Southern African metals and mining industry over the next seven years. Services are expected to form the bulk of revenues over this period, as end users seek new ways to improve processing efficiency, cut overall costs and boost profits. ACS suppliers that offer quality value-added services to meet end-user requirements are poised to make significant gains in market share.

Integrated Solution Providers Hold Competitive Edge

At present, end users are using an average of three suppliers to meet their automation needs. The management of these relationships is difficult, time consuming and expensive, as end users have to maintain more than one service or maintenance contract. End users are therefore looking to consolidate their supplier base and look for suppliers that can offer a broader functional base and set of services.

The acute shortage of technical skills amongst end users, together with the evolution from simple automation needs to more advanced process management systems, is reinforcing the need for ACS suppliers that can provide comprehensive services including engineering, maintenance and upgrade services. "Market leadership will be obtained through the quality of value-added services and the efficiency with which suppliers respond to the needs and requirements of end users," notes the analyst of this research. "It is critical that suppliers partner with end users to devise solutions that go beyond process automation to integrated solutions, meeting all end-user requirements."

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