Pump Sales to Hit $34 Billion Later Than Expected

More than 10,000 manufacturers make a wide variety of pump types. Thetop five suppliershave sales of just under $6 billion (22 percent of the total market). These companies areITT, Flowserve, Grundfos, Ebara, and KSB.The second tier of five companies has just 10 percent of the market. The third tier of five combines for just a 5.5 percent market share. The next five have a combined market share of 4 percent. The top 45 companies have a combined market share of 50 percent. The thousands of other manufacturers all have sales of less than $50 million with the majority having sales of less than $1 million.

Centrifugal pumpswill continue to garner thebulk of the revenues. Sales in this category will grow by $4 billion from $21.9 billion in 2003 to $25.8 billion in 2007. Sales of rotary, reciprocating, and diaphragm pumps will grow more rapidly but from a small base. Rotary pump sales will exceed $3.5 billion in 2007.

Municipalwastewater plantswill continue to be thelargest purchaserswith municipal water treatment (drinking water) in second place. The chemical and refining industries will be the third and fourth largest segments in 2007. The pharmaceutical industry is the fastest growing segment, but still will only reach the $500 million sales level in 2007.

China is the fastest growing geographical market.污水处理厂的主要扩张will take place over the next five years. Irrigation and flood control pump purchases will be larger in China than the next ten largest countries combined. China will spend more on pumps for new power plants than any other country. U.S. power plants, however, will lead the world in purchases of pumps for existing facilities. The SARS epidemic is slowing Chinese pump projects. Most directly hit are service revenues as foreign companies are limiting travel to the country. Then again, this problem is likely to be temporary with no long-term impact.

The trend towardgrowth through acquisitioncontinues. Nevertheless, with 10,000 suppliers, the merger of a few has little total impact on the market. Most acquisitions in the last year have been relatively small. Recently, Wilo acquired EMU Unterwasserpumpen. Wilo is one of the world market leaders in the field of pumps and pump systems for application in the building services segment. KSB AG is acquiring Dutch pump manufacturing company DP Industries B.V.

In general, many pump companies continue to enjoy large market shares in very specific application niches. A group of companies specializes in the stainless steel pumps needed by the food and pharmaceutical industry. Another group focuses on high-pressure pumps needed for steam generators. The market for large pumps in irrigation and flood control is very specialized with only a few companies capturing most of the market. The major producers of the large custom made pumps are ITT A-C, Cascade, Ebara, Flowserve, Fairbanks-Morse (Pentair), Johnston, Patterson (Gorman Rupp), MWI, Voith, and Ruhrpumpen (WDM). Additional manufacturers are ABS, Hyundai, Hitachi, and KSB for slightly smaller pumps.