| The global market for industrial valves is forecast to increase 4.4 percent annually through 2011 to $77.6 billion. Gains will be driven by generally healthy global economic conditions, encouraging investment in key valve markets such as the US, China and Germany. Accelerations in economic fundamentals such as fixed investment expenditures will support gains in the important valve consuming regions of North America and Western Europe. Valve demand in the key energy production sector will also benefit from a pickup in primary energy consumption in mature markets like North America, as well as rapidly developing valve markets such as Latin America. The advanced nations of North America, Western Europe and Asia/Pacific (i.e., Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) comprise mature markets for valves. Valve demand in the US, Japan and Western Europe will all post gains that trail behind the world average through 2011. Growth will instead be much more profound in the rapidly developing nations of the world such as China, India and Malaysia. Gains in valve demand will be stimulated by positive economic and fixed investment growth in these areas, while an expanding market for expensive automated valves and actuators will also aid the overall valve markets in the US, Japan and Western Europe.
Automatic valves to outpace conventional
The global market for automatic valves will outpace that for conventional valves, due to efforts of process manufacturers to improve efficiency. The technology and designs associated with industrial valves are well established and understood, with product innovation tending to be evolutionary in nature. Innovation generally occurs along the lines of construction materials (plastics, ceramics, etc) and productivity enhancement (e.g., improved electronic controls for actuation).
China to see double-digit growth in valve production
The largest and most advanced markets for industrial valves are typically located in the developed nations of the world, particularly those that have large, welldeveloped home markets, technical expertise in manufacturing higher-value products, and access to factors of production such as available capital and labor supplies. This is made apparent by the fact that the US, Germany, Italy and Japan together accounted for approximately half of global valve shipments in 2006. China, however, is rapidly becoming a key player in the valve industry, with valve production of $5.6 billion in 2006. Russia, France, Taiwan and the United Kingdom are also notable valve producers, each with more than $1.6 billion in annual shipments. The largest net exporters of valves are Germany, Italy and Japan.
Study coverage
It presents historical demand data plus forecasts for 2011 and 2016 by valve type and for 6 world regional and 34 major national valve markets. The study also details global energy supply and demand trends, assesses industry composition, evaluates company market share and profiles 36 industrial valve producers. |
Products
News