Laboratory Equipment Market: An Overview

The laboratory equipment market is a very wide term that consists of numerous small and large lab apparatus and equipment, from small school laboratories to the big research centers. The items as small and simple as test-tubes and as large as laboratory ovens, fall under the lab equipment market. In the following sections we have discussed the different aspects of laboratory equipment market and industry. The different segments are : Segmentation of the Laboratory Equipment Market, Key Trends in the Laboratory Equipment Market, Major Players In Laboratory Equipment Market

Key Trends in the Laboratory Equipment Market
In the burgeoning market for laboratory equipment certain key trends have been identified which impacts and influences the business, these are indicated here.

• Spending on Research and Development : Perhaps the most important propellant for growth in lab equipment market. Research institutions, both government and private are a major player
  
  
• Technological Developments : Two new trends like miniaturisation and automation, are also boosting the growth of new line of equipment in the industry. Customers are now seeking space saving options for cutting costs. As the focus is now on mobility portable lab instruments are hitting the market.
  
  
• Uniform Market : As long as there would be government spending on medical and education, with it the emerging interest of private players in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology the equipment is fairly protected from the vagaries of the market.
  
  
• Frequent and Rapid Changes in Technology : One of the very important factor that sometimes makes the survival of the small manufacturers very difficult is the frequent change in technology in the manufacturing of laboratory equipment.
  
  
• Fierce Competition : Large Multi national corporations(MNCs) buying out smaller companies is quite common as a result smaller independent firms are gradually fading out.
  
  

Segmentation of the Laboratory Equipment Market
The laboratory equipment market can be conveniently divided into eight segments. They are :

• Sample Preparation :The segment of sample preparation equipment forms the the largest share of the laboratory equipment market. The standard equipment, included here has centrifuges, shakers and distillers, to equipment range with the latest techniques, like microwave digestion, solid phase and microwave extraction.
  
  
• Laboratory Automation :Laboratory automation segment of the market primarily contains two main lines of product. They are liquid handling and robotics. Laboratory automation according to industry watchers is the quickest growing section of the lab equipment initial systems market. The key drivers for this fast growth are the demands made by pharma and biotech industries for structured solutions and higher throughput.
  
  
• General Laboratory Equipment : The products in this category includes things like gas generators, laboratory pumps etc.
  
  
• Controlled Environment and Personnel Protection : Another very important market segment, where the growth gets boosted by regulations of stringent safety norms in most of the laboratories.
  
  
• Cleaning and Purification :Here also the market shows a more or less steady curve of growth.
  
  
• Thermal conditioning : A very important segment of the overall laboratory equipment market, calorimeter forms an important part of this category.
  
  
• Miscellanous Lab Equipment : This is the last category of the segmentation and includes equipment like electrodes, micrometers, and, pressure and temperature monitoring equipment.
  
  

Major Players In Laboratory Equipment Market
Among the major players in this sphere European analytical and laboratory equipment market can easily be counted among the top leaders. In the United Kingdom the laboratory equipment and consumables industry has a long history. It got developed in tandem with the industrial revolution thus prominently reflecting United Kingdom's strong science base. The lab equipment market in UK was valued at $4.5 billion in the year 2005. By even a conservative estimation the market is set to reach around 6.3 billion us dollars by 2010. UK holds around 7% of the world market share of lab equipment.

Germany is another country that is doing quite well. Total sales of laboratory products in Germany was estimated to be worth around €5.3bn in the year 2006. In fact lab equipment export from Germany was more than 20% of the global laboratory equipment market. While no substantial data is available for Russian share of laboratory equipment market still insiders of the industry feels that over the next 5 years or so it is expected to grow by 5 to 7 %.

In Australia, there exists a mature market for laboratory scientific instruments. The market is highly export oriented, extensive and well developed. In fact the laboratory and scientific equipment industry industry is outperforming others in terms of growth, innovation and exports. The domestic market for scientific equipment and laboratory-related services in Australia is pegged at around $8 billion. It is projected that by 2015 Australia's laboratory and scientific equipment industry will go beyond $2.5 billion from the current level of $850 million per annum.

United States is a leader as far as laboratory analytical instrument is concerned. Countries in the East and South east Asia constitute its major market. For example Indonesia's clinical laboratory and diagnostics instruments market has shown a considerable growth. The imports of clinical laboratory and diagnostics equipment by Indonesia touched $25 million mark in 2004.

In South America the Chilean market for laboratory equipment was around US dollar 40 million in the year 2004. In Africa, figures available for the South African clinical laboratory market suggest that in 2005 the total size of the market was around $170 million. Historically speaking, plastic labware is a dominant player in the USA taking up a sizeable portion of the market which is more than 60% . Compared to this in Europe it is the glass labware that enjoys the formidable status with the market being approximately 70% glass. This is due to the comparatively lower glass prices in Europe coupled with substantially less marketing of plastic products.

In Asia, China stands tall as the second largest clinical laboratory market. The Chinese market is one of the world’s fastest growing and has the potential to develop into a huge market. Though China’s $1.5 billion clinical laboratory market is just 4% of the total global market, but over the next five years, China’s clinical laboratory instruments market is expected to grow at around 20% pa . This would far exceed the predicted figures for global clinical laboratory market.