European CT market moves in reverse

——China's export CT prospects for Europe are promising, and Europe has become the largest exporter of CT machines in China

Although countries such as Spain, Greece, and Italy suffered from the economic crisis, the market for imaging diagnostic equipment in Europe was generally irrelevant, and it became a new bright spot for the development of the medical device market throughout Europe.

According to another estimate, in 2011, the total sales volume of the global imaging diagnostic equipment market was approximately 21.9 billion to 22.5 billion U.S. dollars, and it is expected that this number will reach approximately 26 billion U.S. dollars by 2014. Subdividing the international video diagnostic equipment market last year, various X-ray machines still accounted for the bulk of the diagnostic equipment market, accounting for about 34% to 35%; followed by black and white B ultrasound and color B ultrasound, accounting for 20%; CT machines accounted for 19 %; MRI accounts for 18%; nuclear imaging equipment accounts for 6% to 7%. However, from the perspective of comprehensive sales, sales of video diagnostic equipment products in Europe ranked second in the world after the United States.

The family of diagnostic imaging equipment currently includes new and old members such as X-ray machines, CT machines, MRI, PET, ultrasound diagnostic equipment, and newly developed SPECT (single photon emission CT) scanners, of which CT machines are the most popular. European countries are at the stage of aging population and high incidence of heart disease. From 2005 to now, an average of more than 4 million Europeans die of coronary heart disease every year. In the diagnosis of coronary heart disease, 64-128 high-resolution CT machines can accurately determine arterial blockage in patients with coronary heart disease, and doctors should make decisions on whether to perform rescue operations such as bypass surgery or stent implantation for patients. .

Optimistic about high-end high-end models

The EU is the world’s largest CT machine production and sales center. Following the development of 256 extremely high-resolution CT machines by Philips, Toshiba Corp of Japan has developed a higher-resolution 320-slice CT machine, which has added a fire to the market for cardiovascular diagnostic equipment. The European Union currently has more than a dozen large and small companies in the production of complete machine or accessories for CT machines, of which the quality of CT machines produced by Philips of the Netherlands and Siemens of Germany is the best.

According to the report of the consulting company Datamonitor, the total sales of the international CT machine market in 2009 was approximately US$3.6 billion, of which Europe accounted for 1/3 of the total; this year Europe exported more than US$800 million of CT machines, imported more than US$500 million, and the total trade volume. More than US$1.3 billion, which is equivalent to more than four times the amount of CT machines in China.

Although the economic situation in some EU countries was not good in 2011, it did not affect CT machine trade in European countries. In 2011, the volume of CT machine trade in EU countries still increased by 0.8% from the previous year, of which 128-256 CT machine production and sales accounted for about half of the EU CT machine market. With the gradual withdrawal of old models of CT machines, the market for European CT machines is developing in the direction of high-resolution high-end models. The new generation of high-performance 3D or even 4D CT machines and MRIs have gradually become the diagnostic imaging equipment for European hospitals. The protagonist.

According to Datamonitor's report, by 2014, the global CT machine market will reach US$4.5 billion, and it is expected to reach US$5.9 billion to US$6.2 billion in 2017; of these, CT machine sales in Asia Pacific will account for 17% of global CT machine sales. Europe accounts for 34%, North America accounts for 30%, and other countries and regions in the world together account for 19%. The CT machine's annual international market growth rate can reach around 10%, which is a fairly high growth rate in the medical device market.

In the global market share of imaging diagnostic equipment, the United States accounted for 36.3%, Europe accounted for 27.7%, Asia accounted for 27%, and other countries and regions in the world accounted for 9.4%. However, it must be pointed out that in the sales of CT machines, Europe still dominates the United States and Asia ranks first in the world.

European hospitals use CT scanners

According to the analysis of Datamonitor report, the popularity of CT machines in European hospitals is earlier than in other countries. In recent years, European hospitals have developed new uses for CT machines and related supporting software products, such as dedicated CT for breast cancer screening. Machine and so on. Secondly, European hospitals have also developed some new uses of CT machines, such as the detection of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, etc. In the past 15 years, the utilization rate of CT machines in the emergency rooms of major hospitals in Europe has increased by 330%. It can be said that European hospitals and manufacturers have taken the lead in developing new uses of CT machines in the world. At present, European hospital CT can diagnose the incidence of soft tissue tumors such as various spinal cord neuropathy, flank pain, convulsions, vitiligo, abdominal aneurysm, vertigo, migraine, and colorectal cancer.
In order to adapt to the new situation in which CT scanners are widely used in clinical examinations, the two major CT machine manufacturers in the Netherlands, the Philips company in the Netherlands and the Siemens company in Germany, are developing new low-radiation, high-resolution CT models to enable patients to undergo CT. Minimize the radiation dose during the inspection. In contrast, U.S. manufacturers are more eager to develop new generation PET machines and MRI machines. In general, European hospitals prefer to use CT machines and are more comfortable, while American doctors prefer to use expensive PET and MRI machines.

The number of CT machines exported annually in China has increased to around 1,000, and Europe has become the largest exporter of CT machines in China. The major exporters are the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. With continuous improvement in the production level of CT machines in Shenyang Neusoft and Shenzhen, it is believed that China's CT machine exports to Europe will reach a new level.