Metal Valve Manufacturers NAICS 33291

Aug 8, 2025 - Smart Meter Market Growth

• Smart water metering has grown into a $6.8 billion global market, according to a recent report from Bluefield Research. According to the report, metering systems accounted for more than 20% of utilities’ digital spend in 2024 and play a central role in the water sector’s digital transformation. Advanced equipment like automated meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) enables utilities to measure water more accurately, recover lost revenue, and better manage assets. The buoyant smart meter market is attracting nontraditional players – including telecom and software providers – to the historically hardware-centric industry, requiring traditional valve makers to innovate to protect market share, Bluefield Research notes, adding that as vendors look beyond core hardware, advanced analytics and software platforms are emerging as key differentiators. Utilities are also beginning to use AI to streamline installations, analyze water usage patterns, and predict network and equipment failures.
• Steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the US have a direct impact on small fabricators’ cost structures, bidding strategies, and overall competitiveness, according to Exiil, a provider of software to metal manufacturers. In June, President Trump doubled steel and aluminum import tariffs to the US to 50%. Russian aluminum imports carry a tariff of 200%. Beyond raw metal, the US has increasingly added “downstream” or “derivative” products – such as stamped parts, fasteners, tubing, wire, or other items with high steel/aluminum content – to existing Section 232 tariffs. As a result, metal fabricators are facing higher materials costs. Even businesses that source metals domestically are likely to pay more as US mills often raise their prices when foreign competitors’ costs go up – because the “floor” of the market shifts.

• While President Trump’s “Drill Baby Drill” mantra may be music to valve makers’ ears, another American oil boom isn’t in the cards soon, The Wall Street Journal reported in February. The nation’s oil and gas producers – a major customer industry for metal valve manufacturers – are pushing back against the president’s plans to boost drilling, focusing on controlling costs and returning cash to investors rather than ramping up production, according to WSJ. “Companies are no longer pursuing growth at all costs,” Kaes Van’t Hof, president of West Texas oil producer Diamondback Energy, told WSJ, adding “Shale is in a much different phase of its life cycle.” Fear of low oil prices – the result of previous booms in the US oil patch – is keeping producers from drilling more oil. US oil production is already at record high levels, shattering records in 2024 by surpassing the previous record set in 2023.
• Producer prices for metal valve manufacturers reached a new high in June, rising 5.8% compared to a year ago, after rising 3.3% in the previous June-versus-June annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Metal valve makers are facing rising input costs due to import tariffs of 50% on steel and aluminum imposed by President Trump and the rising cost of labor. Meanwhile, employment by the industry grew 2.3% year over year in May, while average industry wages for fabricated metal product manufacturers rose 6.3% over the same period to $28.02 per hour, down $0.06 from their high in April, BLS data show.