Asia Gas Turbine Market Offers Best Opportunities

Asia offers the best business opportunities for the globally-declining gas turbine market, according to a new report.

A recent study from analysts at GlobalData states that the worldwide gas turbine market is set to fall from last year’s $8.49bn to around $7.73bn by 2021.

The report states that global economic recession and the decrease in the price of gas turbines has heavily impacted market value, with a large number of projects being cancelled or postponed and widespread delays in maintenance projects.

This has left gas turbine companies concentrating on expanding their operations in the fast growing markets of Asia and Pacific, which clearly offer the best opportunities for growth.

GlobalData power analyst Subha Krishnan explained: “In the emerging economies of Asia-Pacific, extensive power plant capacity additions, economic growth, and the need to improve access to electricity are driving the gas turbine market. Rising coal and natural gas production are increasingly earmarked for domestic markets in order to support the region’s rapid economic growth and development, while oil output continues to decline as the most productive fields are progressively exploited and only partially replaced by new production.”

The report states that the region’s primary energy demand is projected to grow at a rate of 2.1 per cent per year until 2035, which is faster than the projected world average growth rate of 1.5 per cent per year during the same period.

Due to an increased deployment of gas-based power plants, natural gas demand will increase at a faster rate during this period than coal and oil, meaning its share will rise from 11.4 per cent in 2010 to 17.5 per cent by 2035.

Krishnan added: “As most APAC economies, including China, India, Indonesia and Thailand, are looking to build new generation capacity, the low price of gas is also projected to boost its share in the overall energy generation mix of many countries. The use of gas and renewable energy is increasingly promoted by governments in the region to address the rising energy demand and need for reducing carbon emissions.

“Despite the rising price of coal, the commercialization of renewable energy continues to be an expensive option for utility companies. As a result, revenue for coal-based generation technologies is expected to climb over the forecast period, and the gas power market in the APAC region, though small when compared to the coal sector, is expected to expand considerably in the near future.”