Global demand for industrial valves is forecast to increase 5.4 percent per year through 2015 to $94 billion. Gains will be driven by continuing robust gains in the Asia/Pacific region as well as strong recovery in the US and West European markets from weak 2010 bases.
The advanced nations of North America, Western Europe and the Asia/Pacific region (i.e., Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea) comprise mature markets for valves. Growth in valve demand in these markets will in almost all cases lag the world average through 2015. Growth will be much stronger in rapidly developing nations such as India and China. Advances in valve demand in these areas will be driven by healthy economic and fixed investment growth. Rising per capita incomes and urbanization in developing countries will result in a boost for all key valve markets, especially water and energy use.
Automatic valve market to outpace conventional valves
The global market for automatic valves will outpace that for conventional valves, due to the continuing efforts of process manufacturers to improve operational efficiencies. The strongest gains will be registered in sales of separately sold automatic actuators, which are used together with standard valves to allow for automated valve functions, and are less expensive than automatic control and regulator valves with actuators preinstalled. Nevertheless, conventional percent of total global valve demand in 2015, with sales benefiting from a lower cost profile relative to highly engineered automatic valves.
China only developing country among top producers
The largest and most advanced industrial valve industries are typically located in industrialized nations, particularly those that have large, well developed home markets, technical expertise in manufacturing higher-value products, and local presence of leading multinational valve producing companies. Germany, the US, Japan and Italy together accounted for 45 percent of global valve shipments in 2010 on a value basis. Developing China, however, is the one key exception to this rule, with the country being the world's largest valve producing nation in 2010 and accounting for 20 percent of global shipments. Other important producers include France, the United Kingdom, Russia and Taiwan. The largest net exporters of valves are Germany, Italy, China and Japan.
Industrial valve industry to become more concentrated
Several thousand valve manufacturers are active in the global industry, but only about 50 are significant from a worldwide perspective. The five largest producers in 2010 -- Tyco (US), Emerson Electric (US), Cameron International (US), KSB (Germany) and Kitz (Japan) -- supplied only ten percent of global demand. Factors such as the wide variety of products offered, the straightforwardness and well-established nature of the manufacturing processes used, and geographic dispersion of customers promote widespread participation in the industrial valve industry. China alone has over 1,000 domestic producers. Nevertheless, the industry is expected to become more concentrated in the next decade, as large multinationals target growth from sales in developing countries and acquire local concerns.
Study coverage
This new global industrial valves study presents historical demand data (2000, 2005, 2010) plus forecasts for 2015 and 2020 by product, world region and for 34 countries. The study also considers key market environment factors, evaluates company market share and profiles global industry competitors.
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