Debasis Mohapatra
Bengaluru, 8 September 2024
The manufacturing sector in North America is likely to be slower in the second half of 2024, leading to lower technology spending by enterprises. This, in turn, is expected to put pressure on the IT services companies’ manufacturing vertical, which has seen steady growth in the last one and half years.
“Manufacturing industry heavy companies expect a weaker market condition and anticipate softening in the North America heavy-duty market in the second half of the year,” Mirae Asset Capital Markets wrote in a note.
Most of the global manufacturing companies are focusing on investing in automation, advanced technology application, IoT, smart manufacturing and AI platforms, the report said.
While the demand environment in the US and China remains strong, it continues to be soft in European region.
Companies like 3M and Stanely Black’s focus on cost control continue, but automobile companies including General Motors, Ford, Volvo, Volkswagen highlighted their investments in software-defined vehicles, electrical architecture and digital products.
The technology spending environment remained mixed for other companies.
While the cost control initiatives continue for Volkswagen and Volvo, companies such as Lockheed Martin, General Electric, Rockwell Automation, Honeywell International, Emerson, DuPont, Stanley Black and Caterpillar indicate to invest in new products, technologies, and services.
Which company is spending?
- Lockheed Martin is focusing on automation to develop, iterate and integrate AI technology for autonomous flight operations.
- General Motors, Ford, Volvo and Volkswagen are investing in cutting-edge technologies such as electrification, softwarization and digitalization.
- General Electric is focusing on new technologies to further reduce turnaround time and costs.
- Honeywell International has started leveraging Gen AI to maximise the potential benefit of operating systems is focusing on accelerator digitalization capabilities to reduce the supply days and optimizing production materials management effectively.
- Stanley Black highlighted that its global cost reduction programme is expected savings of $1.5 billion by 2024 and $2 billion by 2025.
How was the performance of Indian IT firms in Q1FY25?
According to the note by Mirae Asset, large IT services companies reported YoY growth in the manufacturing vertical, with the exception of Wipro.
Revenue growth in the manufacturing vertical declined sequentially for Wipro and HCL Tech owing to weakness in discretionary spending and a decline in hardware sales.
The top two IT services companies in India indicated healthy spending trend in their portfolio. TCS indicated healthy spending across sub-segments such as smart manufacturing, digital solutions, and grid modernization, while Infosys saw opportunities in vendor consolidation, supply chain, and applications.
Going ahead, Wipro expects a recovery in the manufacturing vertical on the back of ramping-up of deals and a healthy deal pipeline.
“Tech Mahindra and LTIMindtree are expected to continue their growth momentum in the manufacturing vertical. We believe that ERP modernization, data and analytics, smart manufacturing, and industry 4.0 will drive growth in the medium term,” the report said.
