Momentum to continue as China sees manufacturing restructuring

Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Pte Ltd said it had a record amount of sales in China last year, as Chinese manufacturing companies are on their way to becoming more innovative and efficient.

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, Siemens PLM Software saw its sales increase by a double-digit percentage in the Chinese market in 2011. Product lifecycle management, or PLM, software is used to help companies manage products in an efficient and economical way from their conception and design to their eventual use and disposal.

Although the company declined to reveal specific figures about its growth, K. C. Yee, senior vice-president of Siemens PLM Software, said its sales hit a record high in China last year and he expects the company's momentum to continue in the next decade.

"We have experienced a golden period for doing business in China as the demand for high quality PLM software is strong," said Yee. He made the remarks at the company's China User Conference, which was held in Qingdao on Thursday.

Despite an overall sluggish world economy, sales in the Chinese market have recovered from the 2008 financial crisis, indicating that the country is undergoing a restructuring of its manufacturing sector, Yee said.

Products made in China have long been regarded as low in cost and low in quality. But many Chinese manufacturers, such as Haier Group and Sany Group Co Ltd, have started to adopt professional PLM software to design, build and sell products.

The software has transformed the way these companies do research and development and can help them become more efficient and save more energy.

"The Chinese market has great potential during its transformation from made-in-China to innovation in China," said Richard Shou, general manger of Siemens PLM Software China. He expects that more than 80 percent of Chinese manufacturing companies, whether they are big or small, will adopt PLM software to make themselves stronger competitors.

"That indicates a huge market volume for all worldwide PLM software makers," Shou said.

Siemens PLM Software was named China's No 1 PLM provider in 2011 in a report by the consulting company CIMdata Inc. Of Siemens PLM Software's total sales in China, the auto industry contributed about a third, followed by the aircraft and machinery industrials.

China is already the biggest market in the Asia Pacific region for Siemens PLM Software, surpassing Japan and South Korea, where many famous manufacturing companies operate. The Asia-Pacific region was Siemens PLM Software's greatest source of revenue in 2011.

shenjingting@chinadaily.com.cn