The ICT, telecoms and consumer electronics market in Saudi Arabia showed strong year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter of 2011, research house GfK's latest analysis of the sector said. With a population of just over 25 million in Saudi Arabia, GfK's data indicates an annual spend of approximately $400 per capita per annum on ‘technical consumer goods'. The value of the market was up 30 percent year-on-year at $2.7 billion for the fourth quarter of 2011. The total market value for calendar 2011 climbed 44.9 percent from full year 2010 to hit $10.12 billion. GfK's research measures the size of what it terms the ‘technical consumer goods' market, which includes the following product categories: consumer electronics; photo; major domestic appliances; small domestic appliances; IT; telecoms, office equipment and consumables. The top three contributors in terms of value of the overall market in the fourth quarter of 2011 were telecoms, which contributed 43.4 percent of the market value, followed by IT (19.2 percent) and consumer electronics (17.6 percent) in second and third place respectively. Looking at the full year 2011 figures, sales in the photo category soared 61.7 percent year-on-year to $306.6 million. Telecoms sales jumped 55.7 percent to a mammoth $4.13 billion in full year 2011 as the Kingdom's demand for the latest mobile devices showed no signs of abating. The IT category also grew, with full year sales in the Kingdom climbing 44.8 percent to $1.8 billion. Metal finishing industry uses a wide range of chemicals and processes to etch, clean and plate both metallic and non-metallic surfaces to improve their appearance and surface characteristics. Through the process of metal finishing, the metal products can increase resistance to wear, resistance to corrosion, resistance to tarnish and resistance to chemicals. The industry is marked by dominance of small specialty job shops that focus primarily on major industries, including the aerospace, transportation, agriculture, defense, and electronics among others.
