Automation in the energy and process industries
June 2025
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
The control system of tomorrow will accelerate innovation for manufacturers for decades to come. For over 40 years, ABB has built and maintained a leadership position in the distributed control system (DCS) market by preserving its customers’ capital investments while providing new capabilities.
“Sustainability, electrification, and digitalisation are the mandates of greatest urgency for the process industries today. They must find ways to maintain efficient production of life’s necessities while reducing the impact of their operations on the environment. Such advances can only be realised by a thorough application of new and emerging digital technologies,” says Martin van Zyl, sales manager at process industries, ABB.
The DCS is central to automation in the energy and process industries, playing a key role within Industry 4.0 and representing a global market valued at $15 billion. A recent report published by the ARC Advisory Group confirmed that, in a highly competitive landscape, ABB remains the DCS market leader for the 21st year running, maintaining a leading share of around 20% in a market worth more than $14 billion.
At the core of controlling and supervising complex processes, the DCS will continue to provide the essentials needed for safe and reliable operations, while evolving its functionality to serve the needs of accelerating digital transformation and energy transition. It will combine an ability to scale and serve new market conditions by adapting to new technologies, including the provision of standard interfaces for third-party connectivity.
ABB foresees a modular automation architecture that will evolve to address customer needs, becoming more open, interoperable and flexible, while maintaining the same high level of reliability, availability, safety and security to which users have grown accustomed.
“ABB leads the field thanks to its domain knowledge in multiple industries, extensive service network, and a continued investment in technology and digital solutions that meet rapidly changing customer requirements,” says van Zyl. The largest share of DCS market growth is in the oil and gas, chemicals, mining, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sectors, followed by food and beverage, metals, cement, and pulp and paper. With its two main DCS offerings, ABB Ability System 800xA and ABB Ability Symphony Plus, ABB has a strong presence in each of these segments.
As the DCS leader, ABB continuously develops new control benefits for customers. For example, by processing the massive amounts of data generated by the DCS, ABB continues to develop new data analytics that help customers to increase production efficiency and leverage machine learning capabilities that improve problem predictability and extend asset life.
For more information contact Martin Van Zyl, ABB, +27 10 202 5612, [email protected], www.abb.com/za
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