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Reporter:Nice to meet you, Debbie. You can call me Nicole, that’s my English name. In recent years, the sales volume of the global analytical instrument market has maintained steady growth and is in a period of rapid development. I have 5 questions, the 1st one is in your opinion which area of industries are Heraeus presented and what are the development in barrier reason of the world and what are the new treats?
Debbie:Ok, if I start with China, and we consider the 13th Five-Year plan, then I understand overall environmental improvements by the government is seen as critical. One of the things I’ve learnt is you can choose the water you drink, but you have to breath the air you given.
I think improving air pollution is very important for the Chinese government, then environmental air monitoring must be for China. Outside of China, in Europe and US the instrumentation business is quite steady.
However, we do see some rather unusual growth in US. You may know that there is a drive to legalize the availability of medical cannabis, it is quite controversial. Cannabis has been proven to be help certain medical conditions (for example epilepsy) and in the US there are many companies now growing legal cannabis which is tested quality, potency, and safety using traditional analytical instruments. We also see a global drive in combined digital analysis (known as LIMS - Laboratory Information Management System) where you have various instruments and data is consolidated in the cloud. There is some resistance from the industry where concerns over security and standards are being voiced. Good luck with that!
Reporter:The second question is competition of instrument market is more and more intense. So more tend to innovative technology competition. Facing that, does Heraeus Noblelight have any response to the new product development and new technology development?
Debbie:Yes, of course, that’s why we are here at BCEIA show in Beijing. I think is important we are understanding what the market focusing on now and looking forward for the future. Heraeus as a German family owned technology group has been in business for over a hundred and sixty years, and we would not be around for that amount of time without constantly developing technology. With our business Line Optics Flash, we invest around 8% of our total revenues into Innovation. We are launching our new unique UV broadband LED light source at the show, FiberLight L3. We also have NOx Detector, which means the customer can take our module and integrate it easily into their system. We feel our developments help our customer to launch new products into the market quickly and offer breakthrough solutions.
Reporter:VOC treatment and monitoring is worldwide problem. Heraeus Noblelight has specialize in UV product and technology promote in more than 100 years, has rich experience in field of environmental protection. So what advanced VOC treatment and monitoring technology does Heraeus Noblelight had? How does that apply to Chinese market?
Debbie: Heraeus Noblelight has PID for VOC monitoring, we closely cooperate with most VOC testing instruments manufacturers in the world who provide VOC monitoring solutions to end customers. For example, our PID lamps helped London Heathrow airport to monitor VOCs. In addition, we have UV solutions for VOC treatment, we had provided solution for printing, fragrance and petrochemical industry in China. We are investing in a product offering that will consolidate the function of treatment and monitoring, providing a digitalized solution to our customers.
Reporter:The next question is about the Global strategy. HERAEUS Noblelight has branches in United State and United Kingdom and China, with fast growing of global market, what is Heraeus Noblelight ‘s next step plan?
Debbie:Beside German manufacturing sites, long before the US China trade war Heraeus Noblelight has invested in China, for example we have a Shanghai Application Competency Center where we can run customer trials. We see China as a critical part of our growth, our 2025 Vision takes into account our ‘made in China’ strategy to improve our competitive advantage.
Reporter:The last question is this year has been the 2 billion year for China instrument market, under implement of the trade war, the domestic market uncertainty and other factor many instrument company are in decline. so how is HERAUES Noblelight doing in China these years, how will it development in the future?
Debbie:We focus on high quality, high performance products and are recognized in market in this way. We continue to grow but of course could always do better. Overall our business in China is very stable and growing.
For the analytical market we have manufacturing in the UK, the US and China and therefore we do not see any issues with tariffs at present.
Heraeus is a large organization, we have more than 12 thousand employees worldwide, with nearly a third being based in Asia. One initiative we started 2 years ago was our “Asia Pacific Forum”. What we saw was product were being developed in Japan, made in China for Korean OEMs, it was important that we brought the 3 countries much close together. This has resulted in joint workshops in each country where we discuss technology and align on customer needs. This has proven to be valuable to the customers and motivational to our teams within Heraeus Asia.
Closing:
Debbie:Thanks for your interview. We also see CHEM17 service became better and better in past years. and the platform bring more important market trend and technology together to benefits China instruments industry.
Chem17 interview – BCEIA 2019