Motor drives: China buyers prefer Europe brands

According to the results of a user survey compiled and analysed by IMS Research, Chinese users of motor drives tend to favour European brands.

One question in the survey asked users to name the brand of drive that they had used in 2007. Of the top five most popular answers, three were the well known European manufacturers (ABB, Siemens and Schneider), which together accounted for some 45 per cent of all responses.

Mitsubishi and Fuji of Japan completed the top five with a combined 15 per cent. The remaining 40 per cent was split between a further 22 companies, indicating the fragmented nature of the market beyond the major players.

The dominance of the European brands can perhaps be explained by users' perceptions of both the products and the suppliers themselves, revealed by additional questioning in the survey.

While products manufactured by Asian firms tended to be thought of as less expensive, their European counterparts were generally perceived to be industry experts offering premium quality products.

Quality and industry expertise, or rather the perception of them, therefore appear to play a fundamental part in the brand selection process, reflecting the longstanding presence of European suppliers of motor drives in the Chinese market.