After a difficult year, the market for pipe fittings can expect robust growth rates again in the coming years. Overall, the industries sales increased by 2.3% in the top 6 European markets (Germany, Italy, France, Great Britain, Poland, Benelux). For the next few years, Interconnection Consulting expects an average annual growth of 2.0% by 2020 due to a new published study.

Germany sets the Tone

The largest market for pipe fittings is Germany, which shows – despite the already large volume – an above average market growth. According to the Interconnection Study, the market volume is expected to increase by 4.4% this year. Around 6.000 additional pipe connections are to be set on the market. An even stronger upward trend is expected in France, where sales are expected to increase by 4.8% this year. Italy and Poland also have good growth prospects. Only Great Britain is slowly catching up with the Brexit ghost and is likely to record declines in sales this year (-0.3%).

Hot & Cold Water most Popular Application Segment

The biggest application segment for pipe fittings in the examined markets are hot and cold water installations. In Italy, this segment accounts for 78.2% of the market, Germany follows on the second place with a usage of 76.0%, UK has the lowest market share of 61.3%. In contrast, the usage of radiator connection fittings is correspondingly high in the United Kingdom, with a market share of 38.5%. Italy on the other side has the lowest share of 21.2%. A niche position is taken up by the pipe fittings in the area of underfloor heating and cooling. Pipe fittings are used in Italy (59.1%) and Poland (51.0%) very often for multilayer pipes. In the United Kingdom, most pipe connections are applied for metal pipes (51.5%) and in France plastic pipes are the highest-selling segment for pipe connections (52.8%).

Different Competitive Landscape

Across countries, the top 10 companies achieved a market share of 41.6%. The market concentration is the highest in the Benelux countries and in Germany. Big players like Wavin (NL), Geberit (DE), Viega (DE), KME (DE) are headquartered there. By contrast, the dominance of the top companies in Italy, France and Poland is significantly lower. This is mainly because these 3 markets have a large number of local production facilities and import only a small proportion of tubes. The decline in the market share of metal pipes is causing problems for metal pipe manufacturers such as Mueller Industries (UK) and KME (DE) as PVC and multi-layers are on the rise.

04/04/2018

Copyright: Interconnection, Publication free of charge for coverage regarding the study and InterConnection Consulting.