Control valve market set for steady growth

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team May 31, 2004

The worldwide control valve market, which totalled nearly $2.9 billion in 2003, will reach nearly $3.4 billion by the end of 2008, expanding at a CAGR exceeding 3%, according to a new study.

The worldwide control valve market, which totalled nearly $2.9 billion in 2003, will reach nearly $3.4 billion by the end of 2008, expanding at a CAGR exceeding 3%, according to a new study by the ARC Advisory Group.

"Long-term business prospects for control valve suppliers look reasonably bright due to MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) business opportunities in developed regions and new projects' business in developing countries", according to Senior Analyst Dave Clayton, author of ARC's "Control valve worldwide outlook".

From a regional perspective, most of the growth over the next five years will come from Asian countries, such as India and China.

Russia is also a promising market.

The share of North America in the worldwide control valve market is decreasing and the trend will continue over the forecast period, as developing countries continue expanding their manufacturing base.

EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) continues to remain relatively flat with some growth occurring in Eastern Europe and countries formerly part of the Soviet Union.

Owing to economic and political turmoil, Latin America will experience subdued growth over the forecast period.

From an industry perspective, infrastructure requirements for new energy sources are the key growth driver.

Growing need for clean, cheap fuel to generate electricity to feed growing economic activities of developing countries is stoking demand for LNG (liquefied natural gas).

These new energy sources are fuelling demand for a storage, transportation, and distribution infrastructure, which requires additional control valve purchases.

The growing importance of plant asset management (PAM) is increasing the demand for additional process information.

Asset management initiatives increase the demand for data transparency to make informed decisions regarding maintenance, operational performance, and financial return of plant assets.

Access to this data often requires industry and process knowledge as well as information stored in intelligent digital positioners.

To capitalise on growth opportunities in asset management, control valve suppliers must expand beyond their traditional product mentality and begin offering dynamic information management solutions.

The growing adoption of real-time process optimisation (RPO) strategies is further compelling manufacturers to invest in information-management valve solutions.

For years, poor control valve performance has hampered manufacturers' ability to obtain tight loop control in critical control loops.

As control valve assemblies increasingly incorporate information-management solutions, correcting for control valve stickiness (dead time) becomes easier, resulting in optimally tuned loops with far less error.

Intelligent valve assemblies are also being used in safety instrumented systems (SIS).

SIS is gaining importance due to increasing regulatory demand in the process industries that require secure operations.

New safety standards demand manufacturers increase the frequency of safety valve testing.

To meet the escalating safety requirements, manufacturers are turning to intelligent valve assemblies as a means to test safety valves automatically on a regular basis to confirm and document proper functionality.

Intelligent valve assemblies provide manufacturers a valve degradation analysis and a time and date stamp on all tests and reports, which is mandatory for complying with the requirements of statutory authorities.