Fuel cell industry shows growth in jobs, sales, R&D
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2008
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 204 KB
- Volume
- 2008
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1464-2859
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✦ Synopsis
Fuel cell industry shows growth in jobs, sales, R&D T he global fuel cell industry is seeing a substantial increase in employment levels, and smaller rises in sales and research spending, according to the latest 2007 Worldwide Industry Survey. The survey says that the 182 participating companies -about the same as for the 2006 survey -reported a 22% gain in fuel cell specific employment, from 7074 employees in 2005 to 8647 in 2006. Reported global sales in 2006 were up 10% to US$387 million, from $353m in 2005, with R&D expenditure up by 4%, from $796 million in 2005 to $829m in 2006.
It is noticeable that global sales are still rising only very slowly, in marked contrast to almost all market research forecasts in the past. Research spending is still significantly above sales revenue (presumably excluding government and other funding sources), indicating that the industry remains strongly committed to commercialization. And the continuing significant growth in the number of people working in fuel cells is encouraging, hopefully an indication of the confidence the wider community has in the ongoing expansion of the fuel cell industry. This is the fourth global survey, sponsored by the US Fuel Cell Council (www.usfcc.com),