The market for industrial valves in the United States is projected to reach $13.1 billion by 2003, according to a study by the Freedonia Group, a Cleveland-based industrial-market research firm. This market - an increase in demand of almost 73% over the 1998 U.S. market of $9.15 billion - will comprise nearly one-fifth of total global demand for industrial valves, which Freedonia expects to approach a total of close to $59 billion by 2003.
The Freedonia study, titled Industry Study 1170: World Valves, attributes average growth of 6.6% over the next four years to the ongoing recovery of Asian countries from their financial crisis of the last two years. Many of these nations had been among the fastest growing markets prior to that.