The advanced process control market is estimated to reach $1,465.62 million by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 11.79 per cent. Development of IT, infrastructure and hardware services may drive industry growth over the next seven years, says a report
The global advanced process control (APC) market is anticipated to witness growth owing to growing importance of cost reduction in process industry. APC consists of a broad range of techniques and technologies designed to add up to the performance and economic improvement in the industries.
Globalisation and government regulation for quality have made industry highly competitive, therefore players are forced to reduce operational cost in order to increase profit margin. Increasing need for optimising resource may drive industry growth, a new report by Grand View Research says.
Key market players are expected to offer customised solutions to enhance competitive advantage. Development of information technology, infrastructure and hardware services may drive industry growth over the next seven years. Increased demand for software solution that can predict the failure at the component level is expected to favour industry players.
This solution offers benefit such as improved yields, increased throughput, reduced energy usage, and improves quality consistency. It also offers increased operating flexibility, decreased operating costs, and improved stability. Intangible benefit such as improved operator effectiveness, better information, and reduced downstream unit variability is expected to contribute to revenue growth.
Need for updating and maintenance activities may form major revenue generation source for the industry participants over the forecast period. Increasing popularity of analytical tools for decision making, finding root cause of a problem and reducing errors may drive the need for integrating these tools to enhance end user value proposition. Increased investment in research and development (R&D) may help players to attain competitive advantage over the forecast period.
Requirement of high initial investment for the license may hinder the industry growth over the next seven years but companies can lower their operational expenditure over a period of time. This software requires a long implementation time which may pose a challenge to the market growth. Small and medium enterprises may avoid using advanced tools owing to requirement of huge investment and added cost such as training and maintenance cost. However, growing awareness about the benefit of APC tools among small and medium enterprise may help industry participants to penetrate segment. Availability of freely downloadable software may hinder the market growth.
According to the report, the APC market is estimated to reach $1,465.62 million by 2020; growing at a CAGR of 11.79 per cent from 2015 to 2020. The APC market has applications across sectors such as oil and gas, petrochemicals, water and wastewater, chemicals, power, paper and pulps, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, and others (mining and cement).
APC is used to optimise plant performance and stabilise plant operations by minimising the fluctuations of key process variables. Some of the benefits of APC include an improvement in the production capacity, minimised energy consumption, improved monitoring of process parameters, faster modification of the process as per changing requirements, predictive maintenance, and improved process safety. These benefits have made APC an integral component for the oil and gas, petrochemical, and chemical industry.
DRIVERS AND RESTRAINTS
APC market has several advantages such as reduction in power consumption, improved production capacity, improved monitoring of key performance indicators, reduction in process settle time, increase in process safety, better equipment reliability and improved operational understanding.
Other factors that are driving the APC market are the development of infrastructure, IT services and hardware services. Increasing use of APC in process industries are also driven due to the need to reduce emissions, increased operational flexibility and reliability, and reduced operational costs. The only challenge faced by APC market is the reluctance to use the new advance process controllers over conventional technology mainly due to lack of proper knowledge.
Global APC market can be segmented based on end users or on the basis of application as oil and gas, power, chemicals, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals; food and beverage; pulp and paper and others.
On the basis of type, the global APC market is segmented into: advanced regulatory control; multivariable model predictive control; inferential control; sequential control; and compressor control.
APAC dominates the APC market in terms of revenue generation with a highest market share of 26 per cent growing at a CAGR of 11.85 per cent from 2015 to 2020. India and China market with regards to APC market accounts a collective market share of ~54 per cent.
This is due to the increase in infrastructure development and rising demand for energy efficient production process. It is expected that Europe will have a significant market share in global advanced diode laser analyser market during the forecast period.
KEY PLAYERS
Some of the key market participants in the global APC market are Rudolph Technologies, General Electric, ABB, Aspen Technology, Yokogawa Electric, Emerson Electric, Honeywell International, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric and Siemens.
In June 2015, Yokogawa acquired label free image analysis technology from Chip-Man Technologies to enhance its technology capability.
In October 2014, ABB launched the new version of cpmPlus Expert Optimiser 8.0 for cement industry with enhanced features such as enhanced alarm and event capabilities, functional user interface for higher operation effectiveness, object-oriented engineering environment and improve model predictive capabilities.
ABB‘s APC tools can be used for all industries. This product suits include multivariable control, neural network models, and dynamic simulation for training and engineering application. It also offers statistical process and basic control, loop optimisation and auditing, DCS and APC connection and integration.
In December 2014, Invensys launched its SimSci APC 2014 with added capability of powerful calculation language which will allow engineer to add and built custom support function.
GLOBAL APC SOFTWARE MARKET
APC software is an integrated tool used to enhance the efficiency of process management and plant operations. Several organisations across several industries such as chemicals, oil and gas, petrochemicals, power, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, and food and beverages use APC software to enhance their productivity. Effective deployment of APC software enables organisations to reduce downtime and increase productivity by enabling optimum resource utilisation.
The analysts forecast the global APC software market to grow at a CAGR of 9.43 per cent over the period 2014-2019. This market can be segmented into four based on end-users: oil and gas, chemicals, power, and others (cement, pulp and paper, and food and beverages).
The global APC software market in the chemical industry is expected to reach $367.8 million by 2020, growing at a CAGR of close to 7 per cent, according to Technavio’s latest report.
APAC: LARGEST MARKET
The APC software market in the chemical industry in APAC was valued at $113.4 million in 2015 and is expected to reach $174.2 million by 2020. The demand for chemicals in APAC is rising in the wake of rapid industrial development in emerging economies such as India. This has led to the development of many chemical plants in the region, leading to intense competition among chemical vendors. These operators are working to optimise processes to reduce manufacturing costs. Consequently, they are implementing APC software in their production plants to produce chemicals at low costs. Vendors are also upgrading their APC solutions to offer more features to end-users in a bid to sustain in the market.
'APAC constituted close to 43 per cent of the global APC sales in the chemical industry in 2015 because of the widespread use of APC software in chemical industries. Sinopec, which is headquartered in China, have implemented APC solutions such as Profit Suite R400 from Honeywell to boost competitiveness, achieve technological and scientific progress, and reap economic benefits,' says Bharath Kanniappan, one of the lead analysts at Technavio for automation research.
EMEA MARKET
The Middle East is one of the major producers of chemicals worldwide owing to the presence of huge reserves of oil in the region. The chemical industry in the region exports its products to countries such as China. However, vendors in the region are facing tough competition from chemical manufacturers in North America following the shale gas revolution. Therefore, they are integrating automation solutions such as APC and manufacturing execution system (MES) in their chemical plants to optimize production processes.
The chemical markets in Europe, however, are experiencing slow growth due to the economic slowdown in European countries. Also, the high cost of feedstock and fluctuating energy prices in the manufacturing of chemicals have reduced the demand for chemical products in Europe. This has lowered the investments in the chemical industry in Europe, leading to sluggish demand for APC software.
SOFTWARE MARKET IN AMERICAS
Chemical companies in the Americas use ethane, a natural gas liquid derived from shale gas, as a feedstock in numerous applications. The low price of ethane offers a competitive advantage to many US manufacturers over other competitors worldwide that rely on naphtha, which is an expensive oil-based feedstock. Growth in domestic shale gas production motivated petrochemical manufacturers either to expand their existing production capacities or to build new plants.
Several chemical projects are likely to come up during the forecast period, stemming from the availability of low-cost feedstock and energy surpluses that have issued from the shale gas revolution. Over 215 new chemical projects worth $135 billion were announced until September 2015. 'As the chemical market in the Americas is highly competitive and vendors’ chemical plants are already equipped with APC software, we expect the market to grow through the demand for upgrades and renewal of APC licenses over the next four years,' asserts Kanniappan.
Top four vendors in the global APC software market in the chemical industry are: ABB; Honeywell International; Schneider Electric and Siemens.
