The Measurement, Control & Automation Association (MCAA) has published its Annual Market Forecast for 2020. The report, prepared by the analysts at Global Automation Research, focuses on the Process Instrumentation and Automation (PI&A) markets in both the United States and Canada. Ten (10) industry segments and fifteen (15) product categories are examined in-depth, with a forecast timeline extending to the year 2025.

The Industry Market Forecast is highly regarded as sound and reliable data and is a premier member resource. Due to the uncertainty of the long term impact of the pandemic on the PI&A markets, the report prepares took on the task of presenting three scenario forecasts through 2025. When developing the recovery scenarios, Global Automation Research combined the relative growth of product lines based on inherent performance, functionality, technology, etc. along with the growth or decline in process industry spending.

The Covid-19 pandemic is an event with no recent predecessors, providing no economic, social, or industry experience on which to build a forecast. This has lead us to multiple forecast scenarios that will allow the user of the report to quantify different recovery scenarios in the context of their own company experience, as the Covid-19 pandemic progresses.

The three scenarios are as follows:

V-Recovery – assumes that the entire 2020 period loss will be recovered by the end of 2021 period.
Slump Recovery – assumes that the 2020 loss will be recovered by 2023 or 2024, depending on the industry segment.
Mid-Range Recovery – assumes the 2020 loss will be re-covered by 2022 or 2023, depending on the industry segment.

The total U.S. MCAA PI&A market is forecast to drop by 13 percent in the 2020 period. There is a substantial difference between each recovery scenario. The market value gain in 2021 over the 2020 loss in the Slump-Recovery scenario would be $278M, Mid-Range is $708M and the V-Recovery would be $2,182M. The percent change ranges from 2 percent to 16 percent. The five year CAGR forecast ranges from a low of 4.6 percent to a high 6.2 percent. The five year CAGR includes growth from the low 2020 market value. The four year CAGR, 2022 to 2025 is perhaps more reflective of the longer term growth rate.

The report prepares at Global Automation Research consider the Mid-Range Recovery Scenario for the PI&A market by industry and product category. The Chemicals, O&G and Refining will grow above average. Electronic Level and Flow, Flame & Gas systems, Pressure Transmitters, and Process Control will grow above average. Traditional products, DAQ, Switches & Gauges, and Mechanical Level and Flow, will continue to lose market share to the electronic products.

The Canadian Process Industry growth has been generally stagnant over the past few years. A major drag has been the oil & gas industry, that has suffered take-away capacity limits for several years. The problem was exacerbated by falling prices in 2014-2015, eventually causing the Alberta provincial government to place restrictions on production. In the other major Canadian process industries, we see varying degrees of flat or declining capacity utilization. As a result, overall Canadian PI&A spending growth rate has lagged that of the U.S.

This report is included in all memberships at no additional charge. For a list of the products and industries covered in the report, please CLICK HERE. To learn how you can access the entire report, please contact Teresa Sebring, MCAA President at 757.258.310 x200 or by sending an email to sebring@themcaa.org.

Measurement, Control and Automation products and services are essential to the proper operation and profitability of the primary materials and energy producing industries. Specific benefits include improved plant throughput and productivity, enhanced worker safety, increased energy efficiency, higher process yields and waste product minimization, improved product consistency and uniformity. These products and services play a key role in elevating worldwide living standards by increasing the availability and reducing the cost of basic materials and energy while insuring adherence to sound environmental practices.

MCAA is the principal North American trade association representing providers of process control, measurement instrumentation and factory automation systems and software. The Association was formed in the 1940s and has been known historically as Recorder-Controller, Inc. as well as The Process Measurement & Control Section of SAMA. In 1994, the organization disassociated from SAMA (the Scientific Apparatus Makers Association) and established itself as an independent not-for-profit trade association. Its programs provide tools to both manufacturers and distributors in the areas of market trends (including bookings reports), operating benchmarks, customer satisfaction (including benchmarks against industry peers and competitors), compensation and benefits, sales training and executive education and networking. More about each of these programs can be found in this website.