December 12, 2003

By: Dustin Cyril
Website: http://www.water-purification-filters.com

U.S. value of water treatment sales

The water treatment equipment business is fairly mature, having grown substantially throughout the decade of the 1990s. Since 1996, bottled water has shown the greatest growth and manufacturing applications-the industrial market-has realized the greatest decline-from a 46% market share to 40% of the overall market. Although the popularity and demand for ice has remained stable and substantial, the nature of its manufacturing has recently been altered dramatically with the introduction and rapid proliferation of small on-site ice making and packaging systems. With nearly 10,000 of the systems being installed annually in convenience stores and supermarkets, the demand for water treatment systems tailored for on-site systems has grown accordingly.

According to a soon-to-be-released study from Business Communications Company Inc. Water Treatment Systems for Bottled Water, Ice Making and POU Markets, the market for consumer water treatment systems and products is currently estimated at $1.5 billion. The combination of water-quality awareness, growing regulatory scrutiny, and extremely effective marketing by the bottled water industry, will continue to drive this robust market at an AAGR (average annual growth) rate of about 8.5% to more than $2.2 billion by 2006.

Becoming a standard component of new homes in many regions across the country, the wide variety of water treatment systems and products for residential use continues strong growth. A $963.8 million market in 2001, sales in the sector will see an AAGR of 9.1%, bringing sales to nearly $1.5 billion in 2006.

Bottled water sales themselves continue as a significant consumer boom industry and water treatment systems for the sector will follow, albeit at a lesser rate because bottlers have relatively new systems already installed. Still, sales to the $423 million market in 2001 will grow at an AAGR of 6% to $566 million by 2006.

With the commercial ice making industry effectively playing catch up in terms of adopting water quality standards and facing regulatory scrutiny, the sector is the smallest dollar-wise. The proliferation of on-site retail making and packaging units will continue, bringing 2001 sales of nearly $92.7 million up to about $161.6 million by 2006.

Author Notes:

Dustin Cyril contributes and publishes news editorial to http://www.water-purification-filters.com.  Get educated on the benefits of water purification systems and different water filters available