NEWS RELEASE                                   MARCH 2011

$11.5 Billion Market for Fabric Filter Systems and Bags This Year

The market for fabric filter systems and bags will exceed $11.5 billion this year. This is the latest forecast in World Fabric Filter and Element Markets, a continually updated online publication of the McIlvaine Company. Fabric filters are also known as baghouses or dust collectors. They are used to capture nuisance dust with small cleanable cartridges. They are also used to capture furnace fumes with as many as 10,000 tubular bags of more than 10 feet in length in one installation. The cement, steel and power industries are the biggest purchasers.

The power industry in the U.S. is suddenly a big market opportunity. Presently, only 10 percent of the coal-fired boilers in the U.S. capture flyash with fabric filters. The dominant technology is electrostatic precipitators. However, new regulations requiring more efficient particulate removal and mercury capture will result in large fabric filter purchases.

The cement industry will also invest in fabric filters to meet the new U.S. toxic air regulations. 100 kilns will need this equipment installed by 2014.

Despite the regulated driven markets in the U.S., the potential in Asia is far greater. Over 50 percent of the 2011 purchases will be made by Asian companies.

The biggest market will continue to be China which produces more than 50 percent of the world’s cement.  It is also continuing to build waste-to-energy plants which use fabric filters.  Its foundries, steel mills and other metal working plants need to comply with increasingly stringent regulations.

Sales of bags and cartridges (included in the totals above) are projected to be $2.3 billion this year. The supply chain includes first resins, then fibers, then non-woven roll goods, then bags, then fabric filters and finally fabric filter installed systems.

For more information on World Fabric Filter and Element Markets

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/air.html#n021