Results

German Companies on the Global Market

Providers of Water Technologies in International Comparison
The water market is globalizing. A tendency towards more competition is detectable on local as well as on national markets. German corporations are competing with those from abroad. Whilst French, British and American firms in the water sector are consid-ered market-leaders, the German water branch is reputed as laggard – wrongly, as proved by “Water 2050”.

This is the result of an international comparison carried through by the Fraunhofer ISI which is examining the competitive ability of German providers within the water sector. The filing of patents for water relevant inventions and the export volume were taken as indicators for comparing countries.
While the analysis of patent activities is hinting towards a country’s possible position as competitor, foreign trade is reflecting the actual and current competitiveness within the global market.

Good Competitive Position

Following the analysis, Germany’s current competitive position on the international markets is good to excellent for all fields of technology. This is true for the share the water industry is maintaining within global trade as well as for the specialising indicator Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA). The fact that Germany is doing so well even with respect to RCA is showing one more time its good international competitive abil-ity. Most important competitors in all technical areas are the United States and Italy. Furthermore Great Britain is holding strong positions in the fields of water treatment and measuring and control technology, Japan is doing well with respect to water distri-bution and drainage systems as well as decentralised water management, Korea’s strong points are technologies to improve the efficiency of water usage and Switzerland is holding a strong position within the field of measuring and control technology. In spite of its good contracting reputation in connection with water and wastewater projects for emerging and developing countries France is not taking a prominent position in any of the technical areas. The reason for this discrepancy may be that France’s contribution is rather of an operative and coordinative than of a technical nature.

Patents: Indicator of Technical Potential

With respect to the technical potential the German industry is not doing that well. Effi-ciency of water usage as well as water distribution and disposal are holding a good posi-tion with patent applications so that here a good to excellent technical ability can be assumed. On the other hand, the number of patents in the fields of waste water clearance and decentralised water management is only average and with respect to water treatment and measuring and control technologies the German industry is lagging behind in inter-national comparison. Here again, important competitors are the United States, Japan and Italy with South Korea, Great Britain, France and the Netherlands coming forward in some individual areas. Canada’s position is of special interest since it is standing out with its patent applications in no less than five of the six technical areas examined. Evi-dently the water economy is representing one focal point of research and development activities in that country. According to the ISI it is “only a matter of time until these efforts will correspondingly be reflected in great foreign trade successes”.

Innovation Dynamics in International Comparison

The innovation dynamics (i.e. the relative rise of patent applications) within the exam-ined technical areas is similarly heterogeneous as the technical abilities (measured as relative patent application, RPA). But a top ranking position with innovation dynamics is only partly going hand in hand with good technical abilities. This is the case for the efficiency of water usage. Contrary thereto decentralised water management is just holding a modest position and the area of water treatment is even doing rather badly.
All in all the situation for the examined technical areas can be described as follows: the efficiency of water usage as an essential aspect of sustainability as well as water distri-bution and drainage which are representing the more traditional and at least economi-cally less sustainable urban water management are technical areas with an important potential for the German industry. Competitors are at hand but it is possible to keep them at bay. In the areas of water treatment and waste water clearance only minor inno-vation dynamics can be stated for German based companies. Due to these average to poor technical abilities (measured in RPA) the future prospects of German companies have to be rated as rather modest in those fields in general.

Stand 11.12.2008