This Thomas Index Report is sponsored by SSP, a leading provider of instrumentation fittings, valves, tubing, and new TurnPro hand tools.
Hello again. This week we’re going to take a look at sourcing activity for Valves by users of the ThomasNet.com platform. Our data shows that over the past 12 weeks, sourcing activity for this category is up 23% over its historical average.
Our firmographic buyer data shows that three of the top industries driving this sourcing trend on our platform are oil & gas, industrial equipment manufacturing, and aerospace & defense.
The industrial valve market is expected to grow from $70 billion this year to over $85 billion by 2023, with the oil & gas industry fueling much of that growth. According to the US Energy Information Administration, US oil production is on track to make us the world’s largest oil producer by 2019. This is based on an expectation that output at major US shale oil basins will continue to rise.
However, a huge challenge facing the industry is the lack of infrastructure – primarily pipelines. This is hampering the ability to transport oil from the shale fields to refineries. In fact, at America’s seven largest shale basins, there are over 8 thousand drilled but uncompleted wells as of this past August. Many of these wells sit untapped due to the fact that existing pipelines are running near or at capacity, in addition to a rail and trucking shortage. As the industry moves forward in building out the infrastructure and pipelines required to relieve this bottleneck, we expect the demand for critical components such as Valves to remain strong.
In addition to the general category of Valves, our data also shows that sourcing activity is up 15% or more, month over month, in the categories of Relief Valves and Check Valves.
Moving on from Valves, here’s a look at the top ten industrial product and service categories being sourced on the ThomasNet.com platform over the past four weeks:
- Steel
- Printed Circuit Boards
- CNC Machining
- Injection Molded Plastics
- Lumber
- Aluminum
- Food Products
- Metal Fabrication
- Tube Fabrication & Bending Services
- Corrugated Boxes
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Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week.