Industrial investment: Asia's dominance strengthens

Industrial investment: Asia's dominance strengthens

Data from the 2020 edition of the Global Industrial Investment Barometer has just been published.Each year, the Barometer offers a unique snapshot of the emergence of the factory of the future around the world, and helps identify the regional or global trends that will shape tomorrow's industry. As such, it is a unique tool for analyzing the concrete progress of the factory of the future in global industrial investment.The Global Industrial Investment Barometer was set up in 2016 by Fives, EDF, l'Institut de la réindustrialisation and Trendeo. It is part of the DEFI&COproject, led by CESI as part of the Investissement d'Avenir program.This barometer is based on a real-time database of significant investment announcements. Its aim is to measure international investment trends, whether in new or existing production facilities. To this end, it identifies projects and achievements that contribute to the development of the "industry of the future", based on technological and societal criteria: flexibility, digitization, energy efficiency, environmental protection, integration into the local economy and social efforts.

Download the 2020 barometer

The 2020 edition highlights the following points:

• COVID-19 has slowed industrial investment worldwide, but Asia has suffered less than the rest of the world;
• The criteria of the Factory of the Future are less emphasized by manufacturers in these difficult times, but overall, European countries are the most advanced on this theme. In Asia, technological criteria (digitalization) are more important than social and environmental criteria;
• Manufacturers are making great efforts to highlight the CO 2 savings they are making, even if these efforts are mainly coming from the energy sector;
• Industrial innovation continues in a number of areas (products, processes, costs), with many projects that are world or continental firsts in their sector;
• In 5G, Asia is far ahead of the rest of the world, both in terms of the number of projects and the amounts invested;
• There will be a contraction in foreign investment projects in 2020, from 54% to 48% of total investment;
• In the hydrogen sector, Europe's proactive stance is helping to improve positioning, but the sector is still in its infancy;
• GAFAMs are investing more and with higher Usine du Futur scores than their Chinese competitors. But most of their manufacturing suppliers are located in China;
• The trade dispute between the USA and China has led to a number of relocations, which for the time being are mainly benefiting Taiwan.

Gwénaël Guillemot, Director of the Institut de la réindustrialisation and head of the industry department at CESI Nanterre, commented: " Decarbonization, the global challenge of reducing fossil fuel consumption, is beginning to have a lasting impact on global industry. An analysis of over 3,000 investment projects shows that efforts are being made to improve the energy efficiency of production equipment.Laurent Levacher, in charge of the Industry of the Future project at EDF: " To remain competitive, industry must transform itself and improve its performance; to meet the demands of its customers, it must also decarbonize.Bijan Cour, Head of Hydrogen Development at Fives: " Decarbonized hydrogen is an essential solution for tomorrow's mobility and greater adoption of renewable energies. Technologies have reached sufficient maturity to enable mass production with the support of ambitious national programs. The development of the sector will require the involvement of solid industrial players capable of designing and supplying innovative, digitalized production lines that are highly demanding in terms of quality."