The Middle East and Africa also contributed to strong growth in 2023 and is projected to continue in 2024. The Ministries of Health in Oman and Saudi Arabia have both released tenders and Public Private Partnerships, while the Turkish Ministry of Health procured 50 ceiling-suspended DR systems from Chinese DR vendor Lanmage in 2023.
Asia Pacific Demand for radiography and fluoroscopy systems was subdued in 2023 because of the end of the Japanese subsidiary budget, and the postponement of system purchases in China due to the anti-corruption campaign. This has primed the APAC region for the fastest revenue growth in general radiography equipment over the 5-year forecast. However, domestic competition remains a barrier for imported brands in these markets.
Asian competition Asian manufacturers made significant strides in 2023 in public procurement in Turkey, Italy and the U.K. Beijing Wandong participated in the Italian CONSIP tender via an Italian distributor and is also now a listed vendor for supplying the NHS with digital radiography equipment alongside vendors like DRGEM, Mindray and Perlove.
The negative downturn in the Chinese general radiography and fluoroscopy markets also presented little difficulty for vendors like United Imaging and Beijing Wandong, who both continued to grow their global revenue market shares in 2023 for general radiography equipment. Fujifilm also maintained its market position at number three in 2023 for global general radiography equipment in terms of revenues. This was due to its strong offering of multimodal solutions since acquiring Hitachi Medical Systems in 2021. Fujifilm also announced the release of three new radiography systems and a fluoroscopy system at RSNA 2023 for the U.S. market, highlighting its eagerness to further penetrate the U.S.
Indian vendors like Allengers, BPL and Trivitron also benefit from several domestic initiatives, which streamline production and minimise costs, partly through shared facilities in medical device parks. Paired with technology deals in Korea to source cheap FPDs, Indian vendors are expected to increase their presence both domestically and internationally in the mid-term.
Future market outlook As inflation eases, the demand for high-end DR systems is expected to increase and digitalisation in emerging markets will drive demand in the low-end and midrange value segments for DR solutions. For fluoroscopy systems, demand is flat in mature markets due to stagnant procedure volumes. Meanwhile, high costs and inflationary pressures have led emerging markets to prioritise spending elsewhere in the near term.
