The market for precision scientific instruments in China will grow as much as 250 percent in the next four years given the strong economy and more expenditures on research and development, according to an industry report.
Yet the market will continue to be dominated by overseas brands in the near future. Most domestic manufacturers lack capacity to compete or the skill to make products such as electron microscopes, atomic absorbers, ultraviolet spectrometers, mass spectrometers and liquid chromatographs, said the report by the China Association for Instrumental Analysis.
The association is under the Ministry of Science and Technology. "More spending on R&D projects will lead to more spending on analytical instruments as 50 to 70 percent of that expenditure is spent buying instruments and equipment," said Ma Xiguan, standing member of the association.
Based on his research, the precision instrument market will be worth US$3.5 billion to US$4.2 billion a year given that both average annual economic growth and R&D expenditure growth remains at 9 to 10 percent each.
Spending on research and development last year rose 24.6 percent to 245 billion yuan (US$30.6 billion). Companies invested 167.38 billion yuan, government-run research institutions spent 51.31 billion yuan, and universities laid out 24.23 billion yuan, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.