The Southeast Asian GSE market is tipped for significant growth in the coming years. Airside speaks with GSE manufacturers for insights into how demand for ground support equipment is growing in the region post-Covid
According to Ben Xu, general manager of Weihai Guangtai’s international business division, the Southeast Asian GSE market has “maintained a steady growth” in the last few years, and there is strong demand for ground support equipment in the region post-Covid. The Chinese GSE manufacturer assesses that the market achieved a value of US$27.8 million in 2023 – more than five times the total market performance through the coronavirus pandemic from 2020 to 2022, the company’s analysis shows.
Xu tells Airside that Guangtai is “confident” of achieving growth in Southeast Asia in the years to come, partly owing to the pandemic and its consequences. “The GSE market has shown diversified growth in demand post-Covid, especially in electrification, intelligence and service support,” he says.
“Firstly, [airports have] returned to normal, and the overall demand for airport ground support equipment has increased, with a more significant tendency to purchase electric products.
Furthermore, many customers have raised demand for after-sales maintenance [and], in addition to purchasing our equipment, they also hope to receive high-quality service.
“Moreover, due to the lack of labour force, the demand for intelligence and automation has increased sharply – for example, our autonomous baggage tractor and battery swapping station have received widespread attention.”
According to Xu, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Cambodia will drive this market growth in the coming years. Indeed, the Spring 2024 edition of Airside explored Techo International Airport, a new airport under construction close to the Cambodian capital, which its investors hope will propel the country’s aviation industry and transform its infrastructure, logistics and ground handling services offerings.
Xu says fleet renewal will play a significant part in the anticipated boom in the Southeast Asian GSE market, because outdated equipment cannot meet the needs of daily airport operations in the region. The demand for new technology on the ramp will also aid market growth, the Chinese manufacturer says – particularly the “development of [artificial] intelligence and digitalisation”.
A Scoot aircraft taxies at Changi International Airport
Further, post-pandemic industry growth is poised to have a positive impact on the demand for new ground support equipment, according to Guangtai. IATA’s 2023 Air Passenger Market Analysis published in December reports that, last year, total traffic (measured in revenue passenger kilometres) rose 36.9% compared to 2022. Meanwhile, full year traffic globally reached 94.1% of 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels. Xu says busier airports last year have only heightened demand for new ground support vehicles in Southeast Asia.
Speaking on the manufacturer’s plans to target the region, Xu explains: “We will stabilise our leading position in the Southeast Asian market constantly. While expanding the Southeast Asian market, we will continue to strengthen and improve our service capabilities and strive to achieve full coverage of service support in Southeast Asia as soon as possible.”
But lack of charging infrastructure is holding airside electrification back, the manufacturer says. Although demand for electric ground support equipment has increased, inadequate infrastructure to power the equipment is a “huge” barrier.
“Nowadays, there are various emission requirements in different countries,” Xu says. “Although the demand for [charging] infrastructure construction has indeed increased, the investment has increased slowly, which highly affects the growth of electric product purchases. In response to this situation, Guangtai will provide different solutions based on the actual situation of customers to solve the problem of infrastructure investment.” This includes mobile power banks and energy storage systems for electric GSE, he stresses.
ITW GSE is another manufacturer with its sights potentially on the Southeast Asian GSE market in the coming years. Although its vice president general manager, Poul Elvstrøm, tells Airside in an exclusive interview for this edition (see page 38) that the region “is not what will be driving [the global market] this year, next year or the year after,” the company has “really solid orderbooks for 2024 and 2025” and sees potential for market growth there.
Steven Ng, sales director for the Asia-Pacific region at ITW GSE, expands: “Since 2019 many ground handling companies, airlines and airports have postponed the procurement of ground support equipment … Fortunately, we now see a significant increase in both air travel and air cargo movement. This means that ground handling companies and airlines are now looking at replacing their ageing GSE fleets to meet the new demand.”
But, according to Ng: “The number and scale of airports is rapidly increasing, and we see increased focus on environmental awareness which drives the need for sustainable ground support equipment solutions. Also, stricter emissions regulations are driving a shift towards electric ground power units and pre-conditioned air units aligning with global sustainability objectives.”
