A recent industry study has found that the trend for connecting products to the internet – better known as “the internet of things” – is going to have a profound impact on the pump industry in years to come.
The decline in oil prices in the beginning of 2015, in particular, forced consolidation and a shift to innovative operational procedures as end users focused on value buying and energy efficiency.
The state of global oil prices remains uncertain; but they are expected to remain low and have an ongoing impact on a range of sectors in the short to medium term.
The pump industry is one of those sectors being impacted by current oil prices; and this, along with developments in subsea and shale gas around the world, is opening up immense opportunities for pumps companies.
“The advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) is shaking things up in the global pumps industry,” said Frost & Sullivan Industrial Automation and Process Control Research Analyst Shilpa Mathur Ramachandran.
“The deployment of IoT and Industry 4.0 will increase operational efficiency by nearly 45 per cent, escalate return on investment for manufacturers and widen application scope.”
While turbulent global economic conditions are likely to cause price wars and dampen sales, the demand for cost-effective, easy-to-install centrifugal pumps will balance out any fall in overall uptake.
Moreover, opportunities are ripe in Asia and Africa. Frost & Sullivan have identified AsiaPacific as the next hotspot for greenfield and brownfield investments in the pump industry.
The improving manufacturing competitiveness in Asian countries is spurring replacement opportunities for advanced pumps.
Meanwhile, rising investments in the oil and gas, petrochemical, and food and beverage sectors are strengthening market prospects in emerging Latin American countries as well.
“As pump manufacturers look to tap this potential through sustained focus on innovation, the era of remote monitoring and proactive maintenance will unfold,” stated Ramachandran.
“With changes in the end user landscape causing a shift from transactional relationships to partnerships, suppliers will employ new business models such as analytics-as-a-service and pump-as-a-service to remain relevant in the global pumps market.”
