A new study by The Freedonia Group, a Cleveland-based industry market research firm, forecasts that the global demand for industrial valves is set to rise 5.1% per year through 2017 to USD 82.5B. Although growth will be healthy across the globe (spurred by recovery from the recent economic downturn), the drivers of growth will vary by region. According to Freedonia analyst Michael Deneen, “Advances in developing areas such as China and India will result from ongoing industrialisation, as investment in water infrastructure and electricity generation grows”. In developed areas, continued advances in manufacturing output will provide growth in the process manufacturing market. Oil-producing nations such as those in the Middle East will see gains due to rising production. In the US, demand in the oil and gas market will benefit from infrastructure construction and increased production due to shale development, as well as from the improved economy.

Demand for automatic valves will outpace demand for conventional valves due to ongoing efforts by process manufacturers to improve operational efficiencies. The strongest gains will be registered in separately sold automatic actuators, which are used with standard valves to allow for automated valve functions and which are less expensive than automatic control and regulator valves with actuators pre-installed.