Water
scarcity, population and economic growth, pollution and urbanization all are
placing increased pressure on freshwater resources around the world. The gap
between the supply of freshwater and demand for water for industrial,
agricultural and domestic use is growing at a rapid pace. At the same time, the
cost of desalination has come down steadily, and it is becoming a more
affordable means of meeting the world’s growing freshwater needs. According to
a new report from Pike Research, all of these factors will contribute to strong
growth in the desalination technology market over the next several years, and
the cleantech market intelligence firm forecasts that global desalination
investment will double from $8.3 billion in 2010 to $16.6 billion per year by
2016, representing cumulative spending of $87.8 billion during that
period.
“The desalination plant supplier market is highly fragmented, despite a great
deal of mergers and acquisitions activity during the last decade,” says
managing director Clint Wheelock. “The top five suppliers captured only 25
percent of the market from 2007 to 2009. And as reverse osmosis (RO) is
increasingly adopted as the major desalination technology, the barriers to
entry are being lowered.”
In contrast, however, Wheelock notes that the market for key desalination
components is far more concentrated. For example, more than 65 percent of the
market for RO membranes is controlled by three large players. The markets for
high-pressure pumps and energy recovery devices also are quite concentrated.
Pike Research’s analysis indicates that these competitive dynamics will be
critically important as the stakes continue to increase in the rapidly-growing
global desalination market.
Pike Research anticipates that the Middle East/North Africa region will
continue to be the global hub of desalination plant construction, but there
will be significant growth opportunities in other parts of the world as well.
Worldwide desalination capacity will reach 126 million cubic meters per day by
2016, up from 76 million in 2010.
Pike Research’s study, “Desalination Technology Markets,” analyzes emerging
technologies and market opportunities in the global desalination industry. It
explores a variety of market growth drivers, including dwindling water
resources, population, pollution and falling desalination system costs. Key
industry players are profiled, and country-level market forecasts are provided
for key global markets through 2016. An executive summary of the report is
available for free download on the firm’s Web site: www.pikeresearch.com.