Control valve market forecast to exceed

Tag : Oil Control Valves

In many ways, control valve suppliers are faced with the sameopportunities and challenges as they were at this time last year.
While the extremely robust growth occurring in developing marketsprovides control valve suppliers a tremendous opportunity to growtheir business, establishing a global supply and logistics systemand designing new products for the changing needs of the globalcontrol valve market, are key challenges control valve suppliersmust overcome.
The ability to guarantee delivery times is more difficult now thanever before as demand for control valves continues to increase fromdeveloping markets around the globe, and many control valvesuppliers face manufacturing constraints.
To ensure strong global delivery and service capabilities, controlvalve suppliers are finding it necessary to invest heavily inmanufacturing and project engineering capabilities throughout theglobe, with a particular focus in developing markets.
On the supply-side of the equation, long-term agreements withfoundries in North America, Europe, and Asia, remain critical toprotect needed capacity and lead times.
Those suppliers who did not establish long-term agreements withfoundries during the lean years were not prepared for the strongsurge in demand and are finding it difficult to secure the valvecastings necessary to meet demand.
Taking full advantage of the robust project activity in developingmarkets requires significant product investment as well.
Many control valve suppliers have been forced to expand theircontrol valve line sizes and high pressure class ratings to competein these markets.
Many of the new projects in the Middle East require extremely largevalves capable of withstanding extreme temperatures while providingtight shut-off capabilities.
High pressure applications in deep offshore oil wells, that oftenexceed 30,000 feet, require high thrusts/torque capabilities fromcontrol valves as well.
Remaining competitive in developed markets requires a different setof product investments.
Many of the "Brownfield" projects in the developed regions are nowimplementing FDT-based PAM solutions to provide access to dataembedded in a diverse set of smart field devices and otherproduction equipment from multiple vendors running on variouscommunication protocols throughout the company.
To take advantage of this opportunity, control valve suppliers havebeen active in developing device type managers (DTMs) that enabletheir digital positioners to work with FDT-based PAM solutions.
Many control valve suppliers are also designing their digitalpositioners to support EDDL for HART, Foundation Fieldbus, andProfibus as well.
Another important product investment control valve suppliers areconsidering is the development of WirelessHART products, now thatthe HART Version 7 specification with WirelessHART has beenapproved.
WirelessHART entails much more than simply adding a radio to HARTfield devices.
The development of WirelessHART positioners enhances thefunctionality of HART devices, and preserves the viability of HARTvalve positioners indefinitely.
ARC estimates only 10-15% of the nearly 25 million installed HARTdevices are connected to PAM systems.
WirelessHART may be the enabler needed to connect these installeddevices to PAM systems.
Control valve suppliers continued to report big project wins in theoil and gas, refining, and petrochemical industries in the firstquarter of 2008.
Though the North American and European markets have slowedsomewhat, suppliers are relatively immune, thanks to increaseddemand in developing markets, such as China, India, and the MiddleEast.
Worldwide growth of energy production continued unabated through2007.
Global oil and gas companies continue to reap unprecedentedwindfall profits thanks to historically high oil prices, even asexploration costs increase and international politics play agreater role.
The record profits being enjoyed by oil and gas companies, one ofthe largest consumers of control valves, gives them ample capitalto increase production and refining capacity to satisfy demand,which shows no sign of abating.
The value of oil has also caused oil and gas companies to work toimprove their monitoring processes to prevent product loss andoptimise production, which will require increased adoption ofintelligent field devices, including control valves.