The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland, Ohio-based industrial market research firm, predicts that the U.S. demand for fuses and circuit breakers will increase 4.6% per year through 2003 to $3.8 billion. The projected increase represents a deceleration from the mid- to latter-1990s pace, a period that favored demand for most OEM (original equipment manufacturers) products and a strong fixed investment climate in residential and nonresidential sectors. Aftermarket prospects looked favorable in most segments of circuit protection devices, as the robust OEM demand prevailing over most of the 1990s broadened the market for replacement products.

A somewhat improved investment climate within the electric-power generation sector will stimulate demand for products like high-power fuses and high-voltage circuit breakers. Electronics-intensive products will enjoy the best growth prospects through the early years of the new century and beyond, along with certain specialty items such as aerospace and European fuses. These include miniature and subminiature surface-mounted fuses (especially those based on thin metal film or conductive polymer technologies) and molded-case circuit breakers with solid-state tripping mechanisms. These items are supplanting traditional circuit-protection devices, such as cartridge fuses and thermal circuit breakers, in a host of settings that include high-growth OEM markets such as personal computers, telecommunications equipment and automotive electronics. The group also forecasted continued intense competition from foreign suppliers based both in developed and developing countries.

These and other trends are presented in a study titled Fuses & Circuit Breakers, available for $3,400 from the Freedonia Group, Inc. Full text is also available through commercial database companies and the www.freedoniagroup.com Web site. For more information, contact Corinne Gangloff at 440-684-9600.

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