NEWS RELEASE                                                                                         April 2018

Largest Market for Liquid Measurement Instruments is at Existing Plants

The market for liquid measurement devices for new plants in industrial flow and treat applications is less than 20 percent of the total when compared to replacement, repair and instruments for upgrade projects due to expanded utilization of IIoT at existing plants. Since most new plants are built by companies with existing plants and since there is increasing centralization and corporate decision making on measurement devices nearly all purchases are determined by personnel at existing plants.

Accurately predicting purchases at existing plants is much easier than predicting purchases for new plants. It can be accomplished by determining the flow rates per process, the number of instruments per process, instrument life and annual repair opportunity.

McIlvaine has identified 1000 major corporations who will buy more than 75 percent of all the liquid measurement instrumentation. The analysis is fairly simple for water and wastewater utilities, power plants, pulp mills, steel mills and other industries with very similar processes. Mining is somewhat more difficult as each ore has to be analyzed separately. Food and pharmaceutical plants provide a greater challenge. However, accurate forecasts can be provided if additional segmentation is achieved. The chemical industry is the most challenging.   BASF, for example produces 22 different chemicals with annual production per chemical ranging from 200,000 tons per year to 2.6 million tons per year.

The following example shows the world market for industrial liquid measurement and the predicted annual purchases by BASF. This is segmented by process and then sub process.

          Forecasts for Liquid Measurement Devices in the Chemical Industry  

Scope

Area

Process

  Revenues $ millions  

Annual

Produc-tion

1000 tons

2019 2020 2021 2022
Total World All   2154 2321 2502. 2679.
BASF Total All   107 116 125 134
BASF Intake Water All   6 7 8 8
BASF Cooling water All   13 14 15 16
BASF Ultrapure water All   22 23 25 27
BASF Wastewater All   21 22 24 26
BASF Process Fluids-PF All   45 49 53 56
BASF PF Acrylic Acid 1510

Forecasts in $ millions of replacement liquid measurement devices based on life of instruments, # of instruments per ton of product processed and the annual tonnage

 
BASF PF Ammonia 1525  
BASF PF Ethylene 3480  
BASF PF Isocyanates 2610  
BASF PF Alcohols 1625  
BASF PF

Polyamide

Precursors

910  
BASF PF Propylene 2610  
BASF PF Sulfuric Acid 900  
                   

Next year the chemical industry will spend $2.1 billion for liquid measurement devices. BASF purchases are projected at over $100 million. This includes $45 million just for instrumentation for liquid processes. The Mcilvaine Company has quantified the production of each of 22 chemicals. It also has the regional production and production by plant. However, since purchasing is becoming centralized the world totals are most useful.

The process fluids measurement segment for BASF is calculated based on the annual tonnage for each chemical. This segmentation is useful due to the fact that many instruments for process measurement are unique to the specific product being measured.

The IIoT and Remote O&M report has the liquid measurement forecasts for each industry and each country. It also includes guide, control and measurement purchases for each of the largest 500 companies. More specific data can be delivered with additional consulting.

For more information on IIoT & Remote O&M click on N031 Industrial IOT and Remote O&M

For details on consulting contact Bob Mcilvaine at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 847 784 0012 ext. 112.