Rate of data centre market growth in APAC exceeds EMEA for 2021

With a 24% year-on-year increase compared to 19% in EMEA

March 16, 2022

DC Byte, the leading data centre research and analytics platform, has today shared the latest insights from its Q4 2021 ‘Data Centre Report’, published in partnership with Knight Frank, the leading global property adviser.

According to the report, the APAC market saw growth of 24% in 2021 with an increase of 185MW of new capacity across the region in Q4 and 1.500GW for the year. By comparison, EMEA also demonstrated strong growth of 500MW in Q4, bringing the total aggregate supply to 1.582GW for the year, amounting to a 19% increase.

Following a slight drop off in growth in Q3 across EMEA, the fourth quarter of 2021 saw the largest increase in supply for the year. This follows a record breaking 2020, and the 1.582GW growth in 2021 equates to 71% of new supply seen in 2020.

When looking at the Tier 1 markets, there were significant development announcements in Paris, Frankfurt and London, with 287MW, 145MW and 105MW of new supply added to these markets respectively.

In APAC, the gigawatt markets of Tokyo and Shanghai added significant capacity in 2021, adding between 300MW to 400MW each, to their respective markets. The announcement by the Chinese authorities of the establishment of up to four mega clusters of data centres in the north and west of the country, was followed by a subsequent statement of a further ten national data centre clusters as part of the broader “Eastern Data and Western Computing” strategy.

Whilst in Southeast Asia, Singapore lifted its hold on new data centre builds after a two-year moratorium. Under a new pilot programme, up to 60MW of capacity will be made available in 2022, to developments of between 10MW to 30MW each.

“EMEA and APAC continue to jostle for supremacy,” said Ed Galvin, Founder and CEO at DC Byte. “2021 saw EMEA cooling off slightly after the incredible 2.627GW growth we saw in 2020, with 1.582GW of new supply. Long term sustained development in the sector remains strong with a CAGR of 16.9% across both regions in the past five years. 2021 was the first year following the surge in demand for data centre space and it’s great to see the industry continuing to provide new capacity in the face of increasing challenges around power availability and land pricing.”

Darren Mansfield, Data Centres Research Lead at Knight Frank, said: “The data centre landscape continues to develop at pace, underpinned by both strategic deployment of hyperscale operations and a sustained drive towards third-party colocation. Fundamentally, the needs of businesses are increasing.  Although the experiences of the pandemic meant that new business demand for data centre services initially centred on continuity, firms are now increasingly looking beyond digitalisation as just a survival mechanism and are accelerating the role of digital or digitally enhanced service offerings.  This shift is amplifying business spending on digital transformation, with the expected double-digit increase cementing the case for data centre development.”

To view the latest Data Centre Report please click here.

“It’s great to see the industry continuing to provide new capacity in the face of increasing challenges around power availability and land pricing.”

Ed Galvin, Founder & CEO at DC Byte

Xinghai Bridge, Dalian, China | Photograph by Wade Meng