ANN ARBOR, Michigan, April 28, 2010 — CIMdata estimates that based on end-user payments, the worldwide NC software and related services market declined by 13.1% in 2009. The estimated end-user payments fell from $1.425 billion in 2008 to $1.239 billion in 2009. The reduction in the market growth rate in 2009 was a direct result of a downturn in the global economy that manifested itself in dramatically lower manufacturing activity, including machine tool sales into the manufacturing industry. It has been estimated that worldwide shipments of machine tools declined by 32% from 2008 to 2009, which is directly related to the CAM software employed to drive these tools. However, CIMdata projects that in 2010 there will be a rebound in manufacturing and end-user payments for NC software will increase by 8.7% to $1.347 billion.
Since 2002, the NC software market has shown modest but steady growth as global economies generally improved. There has been worldwide growth in the sale of machine tools and manufacturing output; greater emphasis has been placed on the efficient operation of machine tools as manufacturing firms have strengthened their competitive position, and the overall PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) market, of which CAM software is a component, has continued on a strong growth path during this period. CAM software purchases are related to all of these factors—particularly machine tools.
The size and growth of the NC software and related services market based on end-user payments is shown in the chart below. It can also be seen that approximately one-third of the end-user payments result in reseller revenues and approximately two-thirds of the revenues are payments to software vendors.
NC Market Size and Growth Rate Based on End-User Payments
The above information is contained in the soon-to-be-issued Version 19 of the CIMdata NC Software and Related Services Market Assessment Report from CIMdata. Mr. Alan Christman, CIMdata Chairman and primary author of the report commented, "2009 was a difficult year for manufacturers and most providers of NC software. However, even though the CAM software market (software to control machine tools cutting parts) is a relatively mature market, it has been active and exciting in past years. Some software vendors have experienced annual revenue growth rates of more than 30% per year in good years, a number of significant acquisitions or mergers have taken place in the recent past, integration with other elements of manufacturing software has occurred, new manufacturing areas such as China have emerged, corporations are placing greater emphasis on streamlining manufacturing operations, and the underlying CAM software technology continues to evolve."
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