Largest Market for Liquid Measurement Instruments is 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.

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.