In the first half of 2024, the valves industry achieved a revenue growth of 5%. Despite declining domestic sales, manufacturers are expecting similar growth for the entire year but remain cautious in their outlook.
The industrial valves sector can look back on a successful first half of 2024, exceeding expectations. Despite a decline in domestic sales, overall growth of 5% in nominal terms was achieved thanks to a strong increase in foreign business. While domestic revenues fell by 5%, foreign sales recorded an impressive increase of 13% compared to the same period last year. However, there is a small downside: adjusted for price, the nominal increase of 5% actually represents a decrease of 1%.
"The robust growth in foreign business more than compensated for the weakness in the domestic market in the first half of the year," explains Dr. Laura Dorfer, Managing Director of VDMA Valves, describing the current situation. "Our members were able to strengthen or at least successfully maintain their position, especially in the markets of Asia and North America. The positive performance of companies at the leading trade fairs IFAT and ACHEMA in the spring also contributed to the fact that our members' extensive range of products met with a positive response abroad."
National Situation Remains Strained
Domestically, however, the economy is still not running smoothly. Key customer industries, such as the chemical sector, have not yet returned to a growth path. VDMA member companies are also facing adverse local factors and are feeling the impact of the increasing shortage of skilled workers.
"Various risk factors are currently at play in the global markets, which also somewhat cloud the outlook. Against this background, we expect a challenging second half of the year. For the full year 2024, we are currently calculating a revenue increase of 4%," predicts the Managing Director of the specialist association. "It is all the more important, therefore, that we, as a specialist association, work to support our companies in successfully entering and developing new markets. As the ideal sponsor of the VALVE WORLD EXPO in Düsseldorf, we also aim to provide positive impulses for the foreign business of our companies in these challenging times."
China is the Most Important Export Market
The highest revenue growth in the first half of the year was achieved by shut-off valves with 7%. Safety and monitoring valves increased their revenue by 5%, while control valves recorded a revenue increase of 2%. While domestic business performed better than foreign business last year, all sectors now benefited from foreign markets. The outlook is slightly better for safety and monitoring valves than for shut-off and control valves. Overall, according to VDMA figures, incoming orders are 5% below last year's results in real terms.
In total, industrial valves worth around 26 billion euros were exported in the first half of 2024. This represents a nominal increase of 0.6% compared to the strong period last year. Exports to the most important customer country, China, have risen sharply again in recent months after two weaker years. After a 15% decline last year, they climbed by 139% in the first half of the year to 3.37 billion euros. The export business with the second most important trading partner, the USA, remained at the high level of 2.738 billion euros from the previous year. Exports to France fell by 9.3% at the same time. The country remained in third place among the most important sales markets, with a sales volume of 1.563 billion euros.
