Korean medical equipment manufacturers under heavy pressure
02-Oct-14, Business Korea
Korean medical appliance manufacturers could be sandwiched between global leaders such as GE, Siemens, and Philips and their Japanese and Chinese counterparts.
According to the Samsung Economic Research Institute, the global healthcare market is estimated to grow 6.8 percent each year between 2013 and 2020 from US$4.3 trillion to US$6.9 trillion. The in-vitro and image diagnosis equipment segment reached US$100 billion in size as of the end of last year, when the therapeutic apparatus segment reached US$67 billion.
GE, Philips, and Siemens, the three largest players in the industry, are expanding their business by means of aggressive investment in smart care, in-vitro diagnosis, and comprehensive diagnosis systems as well as CTs and MRIs. In particular, they are picking up speed in the emerging markets including the Middle East, China, and India, where the annual growth rate reaches at least 10 percent. Their presence is a sort of entry barrier against the Korean companies that are trying to enter the markets, after failure in advanced countries.