According to a recent report from IMS Research, pumping applications account for the majority of the global medium voltage motor control centers market. From an industry perspective, this market is heavily concentrated in the oil & gas and mining sectors, which account for more than half of total revenues in 2010. Other notable industries in this market included chemicals, commercial HVAC, power generation, pulp & paper and water & waste-water. Together, these sectors contributed another 26% of market revenues during the year. Highest growth forecasts are projected for the oil & gas and mining segments of this market from 2010 to 2015, largely due to high commodity prices that are expected to persist.

The global market for medium voltage motor control centers was worth more than $140 million in 2010, with more than 5,300 units shipped during the year. It was a recovery year following a dismal 2009, albeit as slow one. The US market comprised more than 60% of the global market during the year, while Canada accounted for nearly 20% of total revenues. The markets in EMEA and in Asia Pacific were much smaller, together comprising only 13% of total market revenues in 2010.

The main reason for the market’s concentration in North America stems from the fact that US end-users have a different approach to systems engineering. In the US, for example, much of the engineering expertise at many OEMs and end-users continues to be downsized, and companies increasingly rely on system engineering services from some of the larger industrial automation suppliers such as ABB, Eaton, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric and Siemens, who carry-in their own MCC solutions.

Outside of the US, the most common approach to starting and stopping medium voltage motors is to use vacuum breaker based medium voltage switchgear, normally designed and installed by a systems integrator, not one of the larger automation suppliers.