The 2017 industry outlook from William S. Sandler, President of the US Valve Manufacturers Association: "SLIGHT OPTIMISM AFTER NO GROWTH IN 2016"

Based on our recently issued Market Forecast of Industrial Valve Shipments in the United States for 2017 as well as presentations at our recently completed VMA Leadership Forum in Philadelphia coupled with discussions with our industry leaders. 2017 will not be a banner year for the industrial valve industry in the U.S. and Canada but will improve over 2016.

Our Market Forecast is showing a small increase in 2017.  The only end-user industries indicating growth are water and wastewater, petroleum refining and iron & steel.  Others are either flat or down.  This reflects what was said by our industry leaders at our Valve Industry Leadership Forum in March.   Some of the phrases used to describe this year as well as 2016 were “challenging”, “tough” and “no projects”.  It was also cited that these market conditions were not limited to the U.S. and Canada. The table below shows the share of market for 2017 for each of the 15 industries followed in the U.S.:

Power Generation	11.8%
Co-Generation	1.8%
Gas Distribution	1.9%
Oil & Gas Transmission	5.9%
Petroleum Production	10.5%
Petroleum Refining	11.9%
Chemical	18.4%
Iron & Steel	1.9%
Pulp & Paper	6.1%
Marine	1.3%
Commercial Construction	4.7%
Food & Beverage	2.3%
Water & Sewage	18.1%
Mining	0.6%
Textile	0.4%
Other	2.3%

Our economic consulting firm ITR Economics made a presentation at the Forum which pretty much echoed what our industry leaders shared with me, namely limited growth in 2017 in the leading indicators related to our industry.  ITR went on to say that “U.S. Industrial Production, our benchmark for the U.S. economy (along with GDP) is flat.  We recently contracted with Oxford Economics out of the United Kingdom for a Global Market Forecast for our membership.

We will continue to monitor 2017 and in August in Boston at our Market Outlook Workshop we will hear from 11 end-user industry experts the outlook for 2018.

Our 79th Annual Meeting will be held September 13-15 at the beautiful Ritz Carlton Hotel in Amelia Island, Florida and we encourage CEIR members to join us.  Registration opens on June 12th.