Valve global market value is expected to reach $98bln

A new study by The Freedonia Group, Inc. has estimated an annual growth of 4,3% until 2019, a slight stall with respect to the 5,8% that was achieved globally between 2009 and 2014. The leading driver, according to this study, will be the process-manufacturing industry, together with electric power generation and construction activity, defined as “Generally healthy economic environment”.
Industrial valve demand in developing regions — parts of Asia, the Africa/Mideast region, Central and South America, and Eastern Europe — will outpace demand in Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, and the U.S., Fredonia forecasts, and especially the Chinese market, that will account for 23% of all the additional valve global sales.
Speaking about the developed economies, valve demand in the U.S. will increase as capital-investment increases in line with improving economic conditions, a trend that will be mirrored in Western Europe and Japan. However, valve demand in those developed regions will trail those in most other parts of the world, because of “below-average increases in process manufacturing output and associated fixed investment expenditures”.
Regarding the product evolution, “smart” (based on micro-computing systems able to collect data from many sensors and to perform computations on them) valves will see a greater request than standard ones, and demand for automatic valves (including control and regulator valves, as well as valve actuators, separately sold) is forecast to grow at a faster rate through 2019 than sales of standard (or conventional) hand-operated valves. Automatic valves will continue to take market share away from standard valves, because of design improvements emphasizing safe operation and lower operating costs.