Growth of the European Used Test and Measurement Equipment Market to Hinge on Increasing Customer Awareness

Frost: With the economic slowdown in Europe, customers in the automotive, aerospace and defence, electronics and telecommunication industries are growing aware of the benefits of purchasing test and measurement equipment from the secondary market. Hence, as customers are increasingly investing in good-quality used equipment purchased at a fraction of the price of new equipment, the European used test and measurement equipment market is poised for growth.

In addition, aerospace and defence companies are anticipated to deploy used equipment to replace failed equipment in their test systems due to the ease of ensuring system compatibility. Moreover, the recent bomb blasts in London have created a greater need for security in Europe, which is likely to further increase the applications of used equipment in the aerospace and defence industry.

Currently, the market remains highly fragmented, with a number of local participants, brokers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), traders and re-sellers catering to customers’ demands. At the same time, the market will benefit by OEMs striving to provide warranty and terms similar to those offered with the purchase of new test and measurement equipment. The entry of OEMs in the market has created a new benchmark with respect to quality checks and warranty terms.

Further, with growing opportunities in the automotive, electronic and telecommunication industries in different Asian regions, industry participants are also eager to establish a global presence by targeting Asian customers.

On the other hand, as the supply of used test and measurement equipment has not been sufficient to meet existing demand in the market, ensuring equipment availability remains a challenge. Also, the presence of brokers in the market who act as an interface between buyers and sellers has led to a lack of transparency and this too poses a challenge to market growth.

In this context, the market will benefit if manufacturers implement initiatives to ensure transparency in their offerings, thereby increasing reliability. Moreover, providing value-added services such as calibration certificates, free software and guarantees/warranties, will enable market participants to win the confidence of customers.”

Overall, the rising demand for used electronic counters in the aerospace and defence, communications, automobile as well as semiconductor industries is also likely to support market growth. Further, the application of electronic counters in wireless communication, broadband, satellite-based networks, Bluetooth and global positioning systems is also likely to increase demand.

Strong growth is also forecast in the used oscilloscope test equipment and used power metres market segments due to the growing need for security in the aerospace and defence industry in Europe.

The development of the third-generation partnership project (3GPP), which focuses on high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) to provide high data speed has created the need to test such data as well as the network relied upon. Hence, the rise in demand for global system for mobile communication (GSM) standard test equipment is likely to spur the uptake of used networks analysers in the market. Moreover, as high data speed requires emphasis on modulation capabilities, the need for used signal generators is also expected to grow.

In addition, with the deployment of 3G infrastructures in the existing 2G and 2.5G network elements, the need to test the latest features in mobile equipment will spur demand for used spectrum analysers.

Similarly, sophisticated and flexible multimetres are also likely to find increasing use in different applications in the aerospace and defence, communication and semiconductor industries. Sustained by these trends, the overall European used test and measurement equipment market is projected to grow from $231.5 million in 2005 to $482.9 million by 2011.

European Used Test and Measurement Equipment Market

Publ 2006019