Are you seeing increased demand for digital fieldbus cable over traditional 4-to-20 analog?
NC: We do supply fieldbus cables but these tend to be for smaller scale plants in water treatment, pharma, etc, rather than the refineries and power plants that are our main markets. While there are certainly benefits from all the additional diagnostic data you can get, you have to play this off against what users are comfortable with and how much risk they are prepared to take. Even in Asia, where there are more greenfield sites, we see key parts of the process still controlled with conventional systems, with fieldbus used for the more peripheral areas like tank farms. CEA: What is Dekorons competitive positioning? NC: We are definitely at the premium end of the market, and we wouldnt chase after projects where price is the only consideration. We have established a good reputation for short, reliable lead times, and unlike most of our competitors, instrumentation cable is pretty much all we do, so there is a lot of focus and expertise for this market. It is the electrical & instrument
