Russian laboratory equipment market

Russia's most important analytical chemistry conference A-TESTex (Analytica) will be held in Moscow, 10-13 April 2007, and highlights the growth in the market with ever increasing visitor numbers.

This year's event has seen over 350 registered exhibitors- up from 300 last year.

The organisers of the exhibition, MVK, are expecting 25,000 attendees up from 15,000 attendees at last years event.

Elena Shatrova, CEO of MVK, told Labtechnologist.com that the exhibition was growing every year, mainly due to Russia not having enough instrument manufacturers to supply the market and customers needing a place to meet importers.

While importing instruments into Russia can be a laborious and time-consuming operation Shatrova believes that "if a product can compete in the market - it will."

There is no single association of analytical and laboratory equipment manufacturers or sellers, making the collection of industry trade information difficult, leading MVK to commission the German Federal informational bureau on external trade (bfai) to conduct a market survey of the analytical and laboratory equipment market in Russia.

While the report did not manage to obtain any quantifiable information about the total market size, the manufacturers and suppliers questioned by the bfai spoke about considerable market share increases, with growth expected to be between 5 and 7 per cent over the next five years.

The growth in the market has traditionally been attributed to the demands of large suppliers of raw materials such as the oil and gas industries, as well as steel, food and chemical industries.

However, export-orientated medium-sized companies are also increasing investment in purchasing high-quality equipment to ensure their products meet the increasingly regulated world markets.

The enforcement of ecological standards for the disposal of sewage and waste during manufacturing processes has become an important reason for companies to invest in instrumentation to avoid potentially high penalties.

The privatisation and modernisation of municipal services such as water, sewage, electricity and gas suppliers will also lead to increased investment in testing equipment.

The enforcement of regulations also requires the relevant control authorities to invest in equipment to allow them to verify manufacturers results, leading to another growth opportunity.

State funding for health care services is growing, as are the number of private healthcare clinics, which tend to be funded by the large Russian enterprises.

According to the report this sector represents a large, but challenging customer.

The report claims that the major suppliers of measuring equipment are Mettler Toledo, Sartorius and A&D, with chromatographs being supplied by Agilent, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Shimadzu.

The leading supplier of microscopes is Carl Zeiss whose rivals are Olympus, Jeol, Leica and the Russian manufacturer Lomo.

The largest glassware manufacturer is Chimlaborpribor based in the Moscow region, whose largest competitors are Skljarny Kaverleri (Czech), Schott (German) and a range of Chinese companies.

The strong position of Russian companies in the fields of laboratory glassware and reagents is due to their compliance with the Russian GOST regulations, which differ from ISO standards.

As no international suppliers comply with the GOST regulations Russian companies lead this sector.

Import duties vary from 5 to 15 per cent that is added to the purchase tax (currently 18 per cent).

Medical equipment is often tax-exempt as long as if has a certificate justifying its privileged product status.

The report claims that importing technical products to Russia can be challenging as clearing customs can often be a laborious job, with procedures, customs duties calculations, customs fees and delivery tax requiring time and effort.

Interestingly, the report states that Carl Zeiss is one of the only companies that works with its customers to certify the products during import and taxation - most foreign manufacturers leave the responsibility with the local seller.