Market Trends of US Industrial Gas Industry
Resilient Demand from the Healthcare Industry
- Medical-grade industrial gases are used in the production of pharmaceutical medicines. The growth in the advancement of technology in the healthcare industry gives rise to the demand for the production of industrial gases.
- In the medical industry, bulk oxygen is often required to minimize the risk of excess oxygen in the lungs or body tissue during surgeries and to provide artificial ventilation. Nitrogen is utilized in pre-flight lung diagnosis to calculate a person's ability to respond to a simulated aircraft cabin environment. Carbon dioxide can be used at the time of insufflation and can be infused with oxygen for stimulation of the respiratory simulation.
- The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) made the need for medical gases even more acute in recent times. More than one million patients were treated with medical gases, such as oxygen, every day under prescription from a health care provider. Medical gases are administered in the emergency medical setting, the hospital setting, the outpatient setting, and in the home.
- North America has the world's largest medical device industry, with the United States leading the way. Currently, the United States is the largest medical device industry in the world. According to SelectUSA, a program by The International Trade Administration (ITA), US Department of Commerce, the medical devices market in the country is the largest medical devices market in the world, which is valued at USD 156 billion and is estimated to reach USD 208 billion by 2023. All these growth depicting factors are imposing a positive market outlook.
- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost 64% of the critically-ill patients treated for COVID-19 have received high-flow oxygen therapy, and nearly 71% of patients received mechanical ventilation.
- According to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), medical gases are manufactured at more than 4,000 manufacturing locations across the United States, the vast majority of which are small businesses. The manufacturing of medical gases is distributed across all 50 states to ensure that patients have access to critical medical gases in emergency settings, hospitals, outpatient clinics, and their homes.
- Hence, all such market trends are expected to drive the demand for the United States industrial gas market during the forecast period.
Increasing Demand from the Automotive Industry
- Oxygen gas sensors are commonly used in automobile exhausts to correctly monitor the amount of oxygen entering the car cylinders. This instrument manages the emissions of petrol, diesel, and petrol engines.
- Argon is also extensively employed as a multi-purpose gas in the manufacturing sector in the automotive industry. Because of its inert nature can be used in various applications, including metal manufacturing, fabrication, and processing.
- The automobile industry in the United States is the second-largest in the world after China and contributes significantly to the regional and global automobile markets. The country houses major automakers producing and exporting vehicles to other economies in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific.
- As per the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), the total value of the car and automobile manufacturing market in the United States was USD 82.6 billion in 2021. The association predicted that US new light-vehicle sales are likely to increase by 3.4% to 15.5 million units in 2022.
- According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in the United States, the federal aim is for electric vehicles (EVs) to make up 50% of new passenger cars and light trucks sold by 2030. Moreover, as per the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), in 2020, the California Government announced an executive order which directs the state to require that, by 2035, all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California be zero-emission vehicles which include battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and others.
- The above-aforementioned factors are expected to lead to an increasing in demand for industrial gases in the forecast period.