MCAA Market Forecast Projects Industry to be $17 Billion by 2023

The Process Instrumentation and Automation market in the United States, valued at $13.9 Billion, is projected to grow 4.4 percent by 2023 to a total of $17.3 Billion. The Measurement, Control & Automation Association (MCAA) has published its Annual Market Forecast.

The report, prepared by the analysts at Global Automation Research LLC, focuses on the Process Instrumentation and Automation (PI&A) markets in both the United States and Canada. Twelve industry segments and 12 product categories are examined in-depth, with a forecast timeline extending to the year 2023.

Three industries accounted for over 50 percent of the 2018 total process automation market: Chemicals, oil refining and electric utilities. These three industries, plus food & beverage, and pharmaceuticals will be the fastest growing segments over the 5-year forecast period. Paul Rasmusson, President, Global Automation Research LLC, said, “There are strong growth drivers in each of these industries including the build-out in ethylene plants, capacity expansions in oil refineries, new natural gas-fired generators, and the growing drive for automation to improve productivity, enhance quality and safety, and extent plant life in the pharmaceutical and food & beverage sectors.”

The report shows that O&G process automation spending recovered strongly in 2018, with most of the growth in the midstream segment. And, the U.S. steel industry spending is growing, as the companies expand capacity to meet tariff-related domestic demand. Rasmusson cautioned, “A slowing global economy, could reduce demand for plastics, creating an excess in ethylene production and oil refining capacity causing delayed or cancelled projects. A U.S. recession would reduce demand for process industry products across the board, undermining the forecast growth in process automation spending.” Process control systems and process control valves continue to dominate the market value, accounting for 60 percent of the total for 2018.

The fastest growing product categories are electronic flow, electronic level, and Remote I/O. The report shows that the displacement of some older technologies (e.g., mechanical flowmeters, mechanical level meters, and data acquisition instruments) continue as electronic flow and level meters and expanded DCS, PLC, and SCADA capabilities are adopted by the process industry. The Market Forecast also includes information for the Canadian Process Automation Market which is valued at $1.3 billion and forecast to grow to $1.5 billion by 2023, a five-year CAGR of 3.4 percent. Five industries—F&B, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, oil refining and electric utilities will grow above average. Two major industry sectors are struggling.

The O&G sector growth is limited due to the takeaway shortfall in Alberta causing lower prices. Growth is further limited as Alberta implements curtailment rules that limit the number of new wells, in the hopes of better prices on low volume.

The Canadian metals industry spending dropped after the Trump tariff, however, the most recent indications that the tariffs will be dropped could restore some spending in this sector.