NEWS RELEASE                                                                                                    OCTOBER 2015

This Year 133 Companies Will Buy 55 Percent of the Fabric Filters

Purchases of fabric filter systems will exceed $8 billion in 2015. One hundred thirty-three companies will account for more than $4 billion in purchases. Steel, stone and power industries comprise two-thirds of the entire market. These three industries are relatively consolidated. So by tracking the activities of the major producers, the supplier reaches the majority of the market.

The following chart shows purchases by individual companies and groups. The list is ranked by 2015 contribution to purchases. The largest individual purchaser is Eskom with 10 percent of the system purchases.

The cement industry accounts for over 20 percent of fabric filter purchases. The 2014 production was 4.2 billion tons. Lafarge accounted for 5 percent of the total production. Lafarge accounts for 1.25 percent of the total fabric filter purchases. Holcim, CNBM and Ahui Conch each purchase more than 1 percent of the collectors and bags.

World crude steel production reached 1,662 million tonnes (Mt) for the year 2014, up by 1.2 percent compared to 2013. Arcelor Mittal produced 6 percent of the total, whereas the next eight companies average 3 percent each.

ArcelorMittal purchases a high percentage of the total fabric filters because of its involvement in several industries. It has both iron ore and metallurgical coal reserves and is among the largest iron ore producers in the world. Iron ore mining operations are located in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Liberia, Bosnia, Ukraine, Algeria and Kazakhstan. In Canada, the company is developing a large greenfield project on Baffin Island. Metallurgical coal mining operations are located in the United States and Kazakhstan.

The potential in the power industry is huge. Ninety percent of coal-fired power plants still use precipitators. If all power plants converted to fabric filtration, the investment would be $80 billion just for the hardware and over $200 billion for the installed systems. The systems would clean 8 billion cfm of flue gas and would require 4 billion square feet of filter bags. The challenge is to determine how fast and how much capacity will switch. The potential in China is the largest, but this year Eskom in South Africa will be the biggest purchaser.

The large purchasers such as Arcelor Mittal are moving toward global sourcing. One reason is to determine total cost of ownership for products and services purchased. Individual plants without the analytical resources are forced to buy based on lowest price. The companies who pursue these large purchasers and can demonstrate lowest cost of ownership will boost sales and margins. McIlvaine has a program to provide Detailed Forecasting of Markets, Prospects and Projects for Fabric Filters. This program is built around N021 World Fabric Filter and Element Market, N032 Industrial Air Plants and Projects and 42EI Utility Tracking System For more information on the program contact Bob McIlvaine at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The fact that power plants in many different countries have shifted to fabric filters is indicative of the most important development in the history of the industry.

There is great concentration among OEMs. FLSmidth supplies a very significant percentage of filters for their cement kiln systems. However, they make both collectors and bags. Other kiln suppliers are major purchasers of filters. Large power plant suppliers such as B&W and Alstom make their own collectors but buy bags.

End Users/AEs/OEMs

The 200 largest end users, architect engineers and OEMs make 75 percent of the decisions relative to fabric filter purchases. This is a small enough group that detailed forecasting can be achieved at modest cost compared to the potential to increase in sales and create greater sales efficiency.