For third year in a row, shipments for the U.S. and Canadian industrial valve industry will grow, rising to about USD4 billion in 2012 according to the Valve Manufacturers Association (VMA). That’s a rise of about 2.2% from 2011 levels of USD3.915 billion and equal to the industry’s 10-year peak in 2008. The figures were released as part of VMA’s annual market forecast.
Like all manufacturing industries, valves saw a decline at one point during the recent world economic woes. For our industry, which tends to lag behind the general economy and its own end-user industries, that drop was about 5% in 2009, as we had predicted. However, shipments have been rising steadily since then,” says William Sandler, CAE, VMA’s president.
One factor that will contribute to growth in 2012 is a rise in domestic shipments, which have remained about the same during the last few years. Exports of valves will again grow — in 2009, exports were at about USD 710 million; by 2011, they had grown to USD760 million, and they are forecast at more than USD 790 million for 2012.
The projected growth for valve shipments in the industry for 2012 will occur across the entire range of end users with most industries expected to gain slightly in total dollar shipments of valves, the VMA forecast shows.
