London, 1994...--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Despite its wide usage throughout industry and commerce, the heat exchanger market and manufacturing industry have suffered from the effects of the recent recession in common with most other types of process equipment.

According to a new report by international market research publisher Frost & Sullivan, the total European heat exchanger market (including the whole range of equipment used for heat transfer and heat recovery in Western Europe, in industrial and commercial applications) is estimated to be worth $3318 million, forecast to increase to reach $4063 million by the end of the study period in 1999.

The widespread usage of heat exchangers throughout industry and commerce has protected the market from the worst effects of the recent recession.

The importance of heat exchangers analysed by the report does, of course, vary widely from sector to sector amongst the end-users, with the largest end-use share of the market being that for the chemicals industry, currently valued at $774 million.

The next most important sector is the market for food and beverage processing, worth $540 million, followed by commercial and institutional uses and utility services, worth $475 million and $447 million.

Fastest growth is expected to be experienced in the market for general engineering, as the whole of the industrial economy begins to recover and invest in new and replacement equipment. This sector is forecast to rise from its 1994 level of $260 million to reach $335 million in 1999.

Assuming that there is no change in the politics of oil supply, the lowest growth rate is forecast for the fuels processing sector, predicted to grow by only 13.9 per cent over the period under review. In terms of equipment, the heat exchanger market is dominated by those designs which have a basically tubular shape to their heat transfer surface, expected to comprise over two thirds of the overall market by the end of 1994.

However, the shell-and-tube exchanger is still by far the largest segment of the market, currently worth $1432 million, predicted to reach $1719 million by 1999.

The segmental growth rates are forecast to vary quite widely from the low values of 20 per cent - from 1994 to 1999 - for both tubular exchanger segments, to high values of 26.2 per cent for air coolers, and almost 27 per cent for plate-and-frame exchangers and waste heat boilers.

The main market trend will continue to be the market share capture by plate heat exchangers from the shell-and-tube segment, as the plate heat exchanger manufacturers continue to develop their designs into higher pressure operations.

The leading national market is Germany, currently valued at $988 million, followed by France and the UK, worth $516 million and 469 million respectively.

Although the heat exchanger market is dominated by the shell-and- tube design, the supply of such exchangers is extremely highly fragmented in company terms.

There are well over 1,500 companies selling heat exchangers into the Western European market, and over 90 per cent of these predominantly manufacture shell-and-tube exchangers.

GEA and Alfa-Laval are market leaders, followed - in the sales volume rankings - by a dozen or more companies with shares of around one per cent, including several large engineering groups, a number of which specialise in power plant supply, and just a few specialist heat exchanger manufacturers.

Frost & Sullivan is an international high-technology research firm. All Frost & Sullivan reports are based on extensive interviews with marketing and technical experts from selected companies in each market segment. Primary research is validated by thorough analysis of available secondary research. Frost & Sullivan is the leading publisher worldwide of high-technology research reports.