Middle East And Africa Process Automation - Market Share Analysis, Industry Trends & Statistics, Growth Forecasts (2024 - 2029)

The Middle East And Africa Process Automation Market size is estimated at USD 6.15 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach USD 7.93 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 5.22% during the forecast period (2024-2029).

Automation has become an essential part of modern manufacturing and industrial processes. It helps enterprises to realize priorities. Companies in the region are automating their operations with the help of different technologies like SCADA, DCS, MES, and PLC. The demand for these technologies is escalating, and many vendors are manufacturing solutions to help enterprises achieve higher efficiency in their manufacturing processes.

Key Highlights

• Automation of manufacturing processes offers various benefits, such as effortless monitoring, reduction of waste, and production speed. This technology provides customers with improved quality with standardization and dependable products within time and at a much lower cost.
• Connecting the industrial machinery and equipment and obtaining real-time data have played a vital role in the adoption of SCADA, HMI, PLC systems, and software that offer visualization, thus enabling reducing the faults in the product, reducing downtime, scheduling maintenance, and switching from being in the reactive state to predictive and prescriptive stages for decision-making.
• The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industrial 4.0 are at the center of new technological approaches for the development, production, and management of the entire logistics chain, otherwise known as smart factory automation. They dominate industrial sector trends, with machinery and devices being connected via the internet.
• Further, modernizing internal processes with automation and better access to information about operations and maintenance will help the industry streamline production and distribution and allow for a higher yield in the region.
• Increased government spending on new technologies is expected to make Saudi Arabia one of the major countries in the Middle East in the factory automation and industrial control system industry. As a result, Industry 4.0 is important for the future of national automation and manufacturing.
• Saudi Arabia's 2030 vision aims for a new phase of industry and automation by exploiting the country's position, strategic partnerships, energy resources, and logistics. It also seeks to automate the country's renewable energy and industrial manufacturing sectors by 2030 and manufacture 50% of its needs within the country.

Middle East And Africa Process Automation Market Trends

The Oil and Gas End-user Industry is Expected to Hold a Significant Market Share

• Automation is a significant driver and trend in the oil and gas end-user industry. Digitization, automation, and advanced technologies give operators and technicians immediate access to critical performance, asset conditions, and technical information. Oil and Gas companies in the region are increasingly adopting process automation tools to enhance decision-making, troubleshooting, and performance efficiency.
• The upstream sector of the oil and gas end-user industry involves several drilling activities that must meet stringent government regulations and require intense planning to cut operational costs. Often, the end-user industry deals with vast sets of spatial data to make several decisions. Several process automation tools and analytical engines are employed to harness the full power of spatial data.
• Middle Eastern oil and gas companies often face challenges when transitioning to more renewable sources. To meet the demand in diverse situations, energy companies must focus on innovative technologies like process automation within their business models to embrace innovation and increase efficiency.
• As of February 2024, there were 296 land rigs in the region, with a further 53 rigs located offshore in the Middle East and 95 land rigs in that region; 16 rigs were located offshore in Africa.
• There is a surging demand for safety and reliability in the oil and gas industry processes. The supply chain creates a significant need for automation, industry expertise, and an extensive partner network. Process automation helps oil and gas producers integrate information, control power, and provide safety solutions to respond to the dynamic global demand.
• With the fluctuation in crude oil prices, several oil and gas companies focus on minimizing costs and maximizing efficiency throughout the distribution chain. To sustain itself in the rising competitive environment and decrease retail margins, the company needs to optimize several processes in multiple sectors.

The United Arab Emirates is Expected to Account For a Significant Market Share

• Fueled by Industry 4.0, the UAE continues to innovate and consolidate its position in the factory automation and industrial control systems industry. The adoption of smart technologies in the market has positively impacted the national economy.
• In the United Arab Emirates, the construction industry plays an essential role in economic upliftment and development. SCADA is being increasingly used in the construction industry. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) allows users to control industrial operations on-site and remotely. The advantage of SCADA in the construction industry lies in the ability to monitor and gather data in real-time and then process it for industrial usage.
• Increasing global manufacturing integration is raising the pressure for automation investment, as cost minimization with quality maximization looms ever more significantly as an operating paradigm for Arab manufacturers.
• With cyber-attacks increasing in smart factories in the UAE, there is growing concern about using Industrial Control Systems. The government also has plans to curb the rise of such crimes. This aligns with the growing trend of industrial control systems manufactured in the country for smart factories to avoid the risk of cybersecurity breaches.
• Technologies such as process discovery, process optimization, process intelligence, and process orchestration are becoming a more significant part of Robotic Process Automation (RPA). There is an ongoing trend of increasing a closer relationship between business process management (BPM) and RPA in the future.
• With investment roll-outs by the government to revive the UAE economy from the effects of the pandemic, the infrastructure and electronics industry were marked as the primary beneficiaries, alongside the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. The infrastructure and electronics industry are heavy users of industrial control systems' hardware products and software solutions and are expected to have a direct positive effect.

Middle East And Africa Process Automation Industry Overview

The Middle East and African process automation market is highly fragmented due to the presence of both global players and small and medium-sized enterprises. Some of the major players in the market are ABB Ltd, Siemens AG, Schneider Electric, Emerson Electric Co., and Honeywell International Inc. Players in the market are adopting strategies such as partnerships and acquisitions to enhance their product offerings and gain sustainable competitive advantage.

• February 2024: Schneider Electric, one of the leaders in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, collaborated with the technology companies Intel and Red Hat and announced the release of a Distributed Control Node (DCN) software framework. An extension of Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure Automation, this new framework enables industrial companies to move to a software-defined, plug-and-produce solution to enhance their operations, ensure quality, reduce complexity, and optimize costs.
• October 2023: Emerson introduced new technologies to support its Boundless Automation vision, a software-centric industrial automation platform that connects data from the field, the edge, and the cloud. More secure, flexible and scalable solutions are provided to consumers to help optimize and automate their operations. Emerson's innovations include DeltaV Edge Environment, Ethernet APL and DeltaV PK Flex Controller.

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