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Weekly selected highlights in flow control, treatment and combustion from the many McIlvaine publications.

• Latest News
• The Advantages of Offering Multiple Combust, Flow and Treat (CFT) Products
• Excerpts from Municipal Wastewater Decisions, February 4, 2018

Latest News

Shale Webinar: Tomorrow, February 7 we will be conducting a webinar on the markets for shale gas combust, flow and treat equipment and the impact of IIoT.  The booming U.S. economy is partly a result of shale gas and liquids extraction technology which has improved to reduce the breakeven point to as low as $30/bbl equivalent price of oil.  Cost cutting innovations are continuing to be developed.  The use of automation, remote monitoring and data analytics is a major potential for future cost reductions.  It is also a way to insure environmental compliance.

You can register for the session at Free Market Webinars.

Oil, Gas Shale and Refining    Much of the shale oil and shale gas market potential is in the U.S.  Lower extraction costs are triggering, transmission and processing projects.  This service provides the world market forecasts for offshore, onshore conventional and tight sources.  There are profiles of the major specifiers including owner/operators and EPC'S.  Project opportunities are posted continually but are focused on the 500 largest specifiers and purchasers     N049 Oil, Gas, Shale and Refining Markets and Projects

Fossil Fired Power Plants.  Coal fired boiler and gas turbine owners and system suppliers will remain the largest purchasers of CFT equipment and services over the next 10 years.  Coal use will continue to rise until at least 2030.  The two drivers are electricity demand and the lower cost of coal fired power in certain Asian countries.   All of the coal projects are tracked in a weekly Alert and database      42EI Utility Tracking System.  The gas projects are tracked in 59EI Gas Turbine and Reciprocating Engine Supplier Program.

Advanced Forecasting.  McIlvaine provides consulting relative to the value of potential acquisitions, SWOT analyses for various new initiatives as well as detailed forecasting of specific product opportunities by industry, process and geography.   Many of these studies are extensions of our market reports.  Whereas our market reports would have 50,000 forecasts, the Advanced Forecasting could have 4 million forecasts to include every product in every industry in every sales territory.  We now have expanded this scope to include the specific purchases by the top 1000 prospects.  We are doing studies in many areas outside our multi-client reports e.g. couplings, compressors, fans, aquaculture, commercial and residential water treatment.  

For more details contact Bob McIlvaine at rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com

The Advantages of Offering Multiple Combust, Flow and Treat (CFT) Products

Bob McIlvaine who founded the Mcilvaine Company in 1974 but prior to that headed an air pollution company describes these advantages. "One of the largest potential projects was a new engine plant and foundry for Ford Motor Company.  We were dominant in foundries but did not have a good offering for engine plants.  The project was bid in two stages: engine plant first and foundry second. AAF took advantage of their broader product line and as part of the stage 1 bid offered air pollution control for both stages. They won the bid for both and we never even had a chance to bid. So, there has always been a preference by the purchaser for single source responsibility."

The McIlvaine Company has been observing the sea change in the combust, flow and treat business due to IIoT.  The interconnection of things such as valves, pumps, and filters allows the system to operate more efficiently.  This interconnection and the value of it can be entirely outside the scope of the product supplier. If so someone else is gaining the wisdom as to how the products can best interact.

The supplier of both pumps and valves has the opportunity to be the wisdom source as to the best interaction between the two. He can use this wisdom to improve his pumps and valves so that they better communicate than do the competitor's products. So, this advantage alone is enough to encourage suppliers to coordinate disparate product sales efforts.  But there is another reason as well.

 This wisdom can be captured in a sub system with pumps, valves and controls guided by an edge computer which further communicates with the cloud based plant system.  If the pump/valve supplier provides this edge package he greatly increases capex revenues.  If he also remotely advises and then services the system he greatly increases MRO revenues.

Obtaining coordination among disparate product groups with different distribution paths is a challenge.  Some of the most successful acquisitions have been because the acquirer allowed the acquisition to operate independently.  This is why the management gurus recommend third party coordinated voluntary collaboration and not top down mandates.

The simplest and best way to achieve the coordination is at the local sales level. In the new era most of the CFT products are going to be purchased by a few thousand companies. BASF, Arcelor Mittal, and many others with the ability to monitor operations around the world are centralizing purchasing and with it sophisticated lowest cost of ownership analyses.  These companies can be identified and the relevant market intelligence about their plans obtained.

Sales people for the different product lines can then easily communicate with each other relative to a specific prospect.  For a customer such as BASF with many plants in the Americas, Asia and Europe but with decision making in Germany there needs to be a BASF targeted group effort.  Sales people at territories in each plant location for each product line need to be included.  They need to be alerted to project developments and competitive developments.  For example, BASF has standardized on condition monitoring systems with one specified valve manufacturer and one instrument company.  So this is a challenge that needs to be communicated. They can interconnect in a variety of digital ways.  Corporate can concentrate on providing the intelligence needed for each major customer and then let the salesmen decide how they can best coordinate with each other. 

All of this is explained in the 5-step program linked from the website at www. mcilvainecompany.com. If you have questions you can contact: Bob McIlvaine at rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com  847-784-0012.