Where Is The Indian SMT Market Headed?

Technological advancements, which are a necessity to meet the high performance expectations in the electronics field, combined with today’s high speed production and quality assurance standards, will drive forward the adoption of SMT manufacturing equipment.

- Sudeshna Das

Technological advancements, which are a necessity to meet the high performance expectations in the electronics field, combined with today’s high speed production and quality assurance standards, will drive forward the adoption of SMT manufacturing equipment.

Market size and opportunities

As PCBs and electronic components become more miniaturised, the challenge that manufacturers face is in accurately placing tiny components on smaller, yet more complex boards. This has fuelled the demand for advanced SMT equipment with a high degree of reliability and accuracy.

According to a research report published by Markets and Markets, the surface mount technology market is expected to reach a turnover of US$ 5.42 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 8.9 per cent between 2017 and 2022. The market’s growth will be primarily driven by higher demand for miniaturised consumer electronics products and the enhanced adoption of electric vehicles with advanced features for connectivity, entertainment and safety.

The Indian SMT manufacturing equipment market in India is also bound to grow along with the electronics manufacturing sector in the country. The Indian electronics market is one of the fastest growing in the world and is anticipated to reach US$ 400 billion in 2022, with domestic manufacturing climbing to over US$ 100 billion. This burgeoning market presents an attractive opportunity to suppliers of SMT manufacturing equipment.

According to industry experts, since India still doesn’t have a mature electronics manufacturing service (EMS) industry, the best estimate of the size of the domestic SMT equipment industry would be about 75 – 80 per cent of the EMS industry. The total market is segmented according to the type of SMT equipment and further sub-segmented based on the technology used (Figure 1).