With projected purchases worth $1.7 billion in 2013, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to become the world’s largest consumer of flowmeters and also, from 2011 to 2017, the fastest-expanding region for flowmeter sales with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5 percent. Such high growth for this core automation technology can be attributed to greenfield investment, together with an increasing need for greater flow-measurement accuracy, according to IMS Research, now part of IHS Inc.
Capital expenditures in the oil and gas, chemical and power, and refining and petrochemical industries in China and India will drive demand for process instrumentation and measuring devices, including flowmeters, said Kiran Patel, process instrumentation and control analyst at IHS. And many of the factors that are driving new purchases of flowmeters in China and India are also evident globally.
“With a growing focus on environmental conservation, the monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly important as businesses are keen to portray themselves as being green,” Patel said. “Another progressively important application is custody transfer. In the oil and gas industry, for instance, rising energy costs have driven the need for greater flow-measurement accuracy given that small percentage errors can result in significant costs.”
Patel said a lack of technical, hands-on expertise at plant sites is driving the use of so-called smart flowmeters, which not only are easier to use and maintain but also provide online diagnostics if required. “Still, these smart flowmeters come at a price premium—something that businesses are not always able or willing to pay,” he said. “Instead, companies resort to using mechanical flowmeters—among the easiest to duplicate, with an increasing number of Asian manufacturers making the machines at low cost, often compromising quality.”
And while local end-user industries with limited regional reach are most likely to invest in such products, “typical process facilities tend to be managed by global players whose corporate image is paramount. Here reputations are at stake and large corporations cannot be seen to be using low-quality products that could affect production and efficiency or pose a safety risk to operators,” said Patel. “In such applications or scenarios, it is to the long-term advantage of manufacturers to use highly accurate flowmeter types, such as Coriolis, thermal mass and ultrasonic.”
IHS believes that these markets will experience growth rates of 16.0 percent, 14.8 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively, from 2011 through 2017. “As China and India begin to realize the benefits of investing in more efficient flowmeters, these more advanced products are sure to drive growth of the flowmeter market in the region,” Patel said.
For more information on flowmeters, see http://www.automationworld.com/control/energy-sector-spurs-flow-meter-growth
