According to the study, the market for industrial networks appears to have stabilized again. HMS expects the market to grow by 6% overall in 2021. With growth of 8%, the market share of Industrial Ethernet continues to increase. Industrial Ethernet now accounts for 65% of the global market for newly installed nodes in factory automation (64% in the previous year).

Market shares of industrial networks 2021 from the perspective of HMS Networks - Fieldbuses, Industrial Ethernet and Wireless

© HMS Industrial Networks

EtherNet/IP and Profinet are competing for the largest market share. This year, Profinet has an 18% market share, ahead of EtherNet/IP, which has a 17% market share. EtherCAT is also gaining ground worldwide and now has a market share of 8%, which corresponds to the leading fieldbus Profibus. It is followed by Modbus TCP with a market share of 5 %. Together with the Modbus-RTU fieldbus, Modbus technologies now account for 10 % of the market. This demonstrates their continued importance for factory installations around the world.

Downward trend in fieldbus halted

The downward trend in fieldbuses observed by HMS in recent years now appears to have almost come to a halt. With a decline of only 1% in 2021, as factories increasingly rely on existing technologies in uncertain times such as the pandemic. The market share for fieldbuses is currently 28% of all newly installed nodes (30% in the previous year). Profibus is the leading fieldbus with a market share of 8%, followed by Modbus-RTU and CC-Link with shares of 5% and 4% respectively.

Wireless technology fixed size

Wireless networking technologies continue to grow rapidly at a rate of 24%. Currently, the market share of wireless technologies is 7%. However, this does not yet reflect the full impact of 5G in factories. With continued activity around wireless technologies as the foundation for the next stage of smart manufacturing, HMS expects demand for wirelessly connected devices and machines to continue to grow and become part of the less wired, more flexible automation architectures of the future.

Regional differences

EtherNet/IP and Profinet are the leading technologies in Europe and the Middle East, closely followed by Profibus and EtherCAT. Other popular network technologies are Modbus (RTU/TCP) and Ethernet Powerlink. In contrast, EtherNet/IP dominates the US market and EtherCAT's market share continues to grow there. In the fragmented Asian market, Profinet and EtherNet/IP are leading, followed by CC-Link/CC-Link IE Field, Profibus, EtherCAT and Modbus (RTU/TCP).