Optical component market "poised for growth"
According to the latest study from US telecom consultancy RHK, fiber-optic component revenues rose from $469 million in the second quarter of 2003 to $509 million in the following three months.
The two market leaders are JDSU and Agilent, with JDSU maintaining a very narrow lead with a market share of 15.2%.
The nearest competitors to these two leaders are Sumitomo (8% market share), Finisar (7.3%), Bookham (6.9%) and Infineon (6.7%). These companies offer limited competition right now, says RHK, with each company’s revenues being around the $30-40 million mark.
Other market leaders include Mitsubishi, Furukawa and Avanex. Significantly, the companies with strong exposure in the datacom market, such as Infineon, Finisar, and Sumitomo, have seen the largest quarterly gains in market share.
“Growth trends for the market during the first half of 2004 point toward modest, single-digit growth now that the market seems to have bottomed and is stabilizing,” explained senior RHK analyst Brenna Hawtof.
“This is largely due to the fact that carriers are focused on financial stability and are carefully evaluating next-generation networks before committing to building them.”
RHK expects to see continued industry consolidation for both vendors and service providers during 2004. Other trends will include:
* Pricing stabilization in some markets, such as in DWDM modules and SONET/SDH transceivers.
* Pockets of growth, such as in datacom market segments like Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel.
* Risk-averse behavior by service providers, who are spending their cash to reduce their debt rather than upgrade their networks.
