Argentina. The electronic security industry, which closed 2012 with a turnover close to US$500 million and a growth of more than 20% compared to 2011, began a process of import substitution with the manufacture of local components.
The electronic security market traditionally includes products with imported technological developments. The Government's decision to limit imports further expanded the protection policies already enjoyed by the sector, which claims to have initiated local production processes of some components that justify these policies.
Enrique Greenberg, president of the Chamber of Electronic Security (Casel), said that "in this process seismic detectors, digital video recorders, windlasses for access control, software for monitoring system and biometric identification clocks are already being developed."
"These are products that were previously imported almost entirely and that from this year (2012) the first developments of some of the products used by the industry emerged, but that require a time of maturation," said the manager.
As all devices in the sector demand to import electronic components, it is transformed into a dynamic technology sector that requires a scale of production, investment and development and innovation that make it difficult to have national components.
"In some areas, unfortunately, we have neither market scale nor technology applied to manufacture some systems that also require significant investments that are only amortized with large production lines," Greenberg explained.
The director maintained that the latter "does not prevent progress in a greater integration of local components."
