Market is up in some areas and down in others

Market is up in some areas and down in others

Here are the winners and losers in the last month. The 12-month running forecast for membranes in Asia is down slightly from last month due to the economic impact of SARS. The Chinese economy has been hard hit. Projects are not being canceled, but are being delayed.

The membrane opportunities for combined cycle power plants look even less promising than they did a month ago. The future prices of natural gas are likely to be even higher than estimated last month. So, the U.S. boom in combined cycle plants is over and is not likely to return. On the other hand coal-fired plants are moving forward. Since they use four times the quantity of membranes used for combined cycle gas plants, this is a positive trend. We are tracking all the new plants in World Power Generation Projects. Click on http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/energy.html#40A .

Lots of scrubber systems are being ordered for existing power plants. This is a good membrane opportunity (cleanup of the wastewater). Check out the latest weekly coverage of these developments under Power in our Sales Intelligence. Click on http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/salesleads.html .

Note: While you are on the Sales Intelligence page there is still access to our RO/UF/MF Market Update of April with the latest news on many membrane projects.

We have a new system which identifies the consultants working on the specific water and wastewater projects. Check out our Consultant Profiles and People. Click on http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/water.html#NO37 .

Bob McIlvaine

847-784-0012