World Industrial Valves Demand to Exceed $93 Billion in 2015

Global demand for industrial valves is forecast to increase 5.4 percent per year through 2015 to $93.5 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 a weak 2010 base. In the developing world, especially in China and India, valve suppliers will benefit from rising urbanization.   Valve demand growth in the US will outpace the global average through 2015 due to recovery in the domestic economy after the 2007-2009 recession.  Valve demand in Japan and Western Europe will also recover from recent declines, but advances will continue to considerably lag the world average through 2015. These and other trends, including market share and product segmentation, are presented in World Industrial Valves, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry research firm.  

The oil and gas industry will see strong growth in valve demand, with increasing offshore, shale and tar sand related exploration activities helping boost sales of higher-end products.  Among the countries that will record robust increases in the unconventional oil and gas sector are Brazil, Canada, Nigeria and the US.  The nuclear power market for valves will see weak gains in the developed world in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.  Weakness in the nuclear power generation sector will be offset by increasing valve sales to coal-fired and combined cycle natural gas power plants.

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 pre-installed.  Nevertheless, conventional valves will account for 54 percent of world valve demand in 2015, with suppliers benefiting from the lower cost of these products relative to highly engineered automatic valves.

The Freedonia Group is a leading international business research company, founded in 1985, that publishes more than 100 industry research studies annually. This industry analysis provides an unbiased outlook and a reliable assessment of an industry and includes product segmentation and demand forecasts, industry trends, demand history, threats and opportunities, competitive strategies, market share determinations and company profiles.