Analysis of the current situation and development prospects of the environmental monitoring instrument market in 2022. The 14th Five Year Plan has a large potential for new market growth

2022 is the year of the opening of the 14th Five Year Plan, and local governments and enterprises are facing pressure to assess the effectiveness of environmental governance. The demand for environmental monitoring has correspondingly increased, and the market growth space is relatively large. The task of environmental monitoring is gradually expanding to the fields of ecological status monitoring and environmental risk warning; Expanding from routine monitoring of physical and chemical indicators to monitoring of toxic, harmful, biological, and ecological indicators will promote specialized development in specialized technical fields.
Environmental monitoring is under the spotlight supported by the state
The environmental monitoring specialized instrument industry refers to the manufacturing of specialized instruments and meters for monitoring pollutants in water and air, as well as noise, radioactive substances, electromagnetic waves, etc. According to the “Classification and Codes of National Economic Industries (GB/T 4754-2017)” formulated by the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s environmental monitoring specialized instrument and meter industry is classified as specialized instrument and meter manufacturing (C402) in the instrument and meter manufacturing industry (National Bureau of Statistics code 40), with a fourth level code of C4021.
In 2018 and 2019, China issued a series of environmental protection policies, continuously consolidated the achievements of air pollution control, increased the importance of water treatment, strengthened the supervision of solid waste, and raised the monitoring requirements related to air, water, and soil to a new level, bringing new opportunities to the environmental monitoring industry.
Since the State Council provided the “Three Year Action Plan for Winning the Blue Sky Defense War” in August 2018, China’s environmental governance has embarked on a “smooth road”, and ecological environment monitoring, as the “pillar” and “lifeline” of ecological environment protection, has been given more expectations. At present, ecological environment monitoring work still faces problems such as the lack of a unified ecological environment monitoring system, insufficient refined support for pollution prevention and control, incomplete regulatory standards, the need to improve data quality, and insufficient guarantee efforts. In order to further develop the basic engineering of environmental monitoring, in September 2019, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment reviewed and approved in principle the “Outline of Ecological Environment Monitoring Plan (2020-2035)”.
The scarcity of environmental monitoring instruments and the hot topics of technology are still concentrated in water equipment monitoring and air monitoring
As of the end of May 2020, from the perspective of public disclosure, the overall number of patents related to environmental monitoring instruments in China showed an upward trend from 2008 to 2019. In 2019, the number of patents disclosed in the environmental monitoring instrument industry reached 153. By analyzing the publicly available patent information related to environmental monitoring instruments, it is found that there are still quantitative deficiencies in the technology of environmental monitoring instruments in China.
In 2019, the core technologies in China’s environmental monitoring technology were mainly divided into 8 categories, namely water quality comprehensive toxicity online analysis technology, smoke heavy metal detection technology, Fourier transform infrared detection technology, VOCs online monitoring technology, unmanned vehicle stereo monitoring technology, portable smoke and dust monitoring technology, ammonia escape monitoring technology, and large-scale remote sensing technology.
According to data from the China Environmental Protection Industry Association, a total of 56575 environmental monitoring products were sold in China in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 38.5% compared to 2016. This fully reflects the steady development of the environmental monitoring instrument industry market with the introduction of the 13th Five Year Plan for environmental protection and the guidance of various new environmental policies.
Among them, a total of 18486 units of smoke and dust monitoring equipment were sold, a year-on-year increase of 22.7%; 7162 units of environmental air monitoring equipment were sold, a year-on-year increase of 55.3%; A total of 19345 water quality monitoring equipment were sold, a year-on-year increase of 86.3%; A total of 9511 data collection devices were sold, a year-on-year increase of 53.6%.
In 2019, water environment monitoring policies and air monitoring policies were intensively implemented. In January 2019, multiple ministries jointly issued the “Action Plan for the Battle of Yangtze River Protection and Restoration”; In April 2019, multiple ministries jointly released the “Three Year Action Plan for Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Urban Sewage Treatment (2019-2021)”, proposing to strive for a three-year effort to eliminate the lack of direct discharge outlets for domestic sewage in built-up areas of prefecture level and above cities, basically eliminate the blank areas of domestic sewage collection and treatment facilities in urban villages, old urban areas, and urban-rural integration areas, basically eliminate black and odorous water bodies, and significantly improve the efficiency of centralized collection of urban domestic sewage; In October 2019, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the “Action Plan for Comprehensive Control of Air Pollution in the Beijing Tianjin Hebei and Surrounding Areas in Autumn and Winter 2019-2020”; In November, the “Comprehensive Management of Air Pollution in the Yangtze River Delta Region for Autumn and Winter 2019-2020” was issued
The Action Plan for Comprehensive Control of Air Pollution in the Fenwei Plain for Autumn and Winter 2019-2020 has arranged measures for the comprehensive control of air pollution in key areas.
With the introduction of the 13th Five Year Plan for environmental protection and the guidance of various new environmental policies, the market for environmental monitoring instruments has steadily developed. In terms of categories, environmental monitoring instruments mainly include five categories: environmental air detectors, smoke and dust monitoring instruments, water quality monitoring instruments, particulate matter samplers, and data acquisition instruments. Based on the statistics of the China Environmental Protection Industry Association from 2010 to 2017, and considering the current policy situation of China’s environmental monitoring instrument industry in 2018 and 2019, it is estimated that the sales volume of the other four major categories of monitoring instruments will further increase, except for samplers which are a market with very stable and saturated demand. In the 2019 forecast data, environmental air and water quality equipment monitoring instruments are the core products of China’s environmental monitoring equipment, accounting for 30% and 35% respectively.
The demand for capacity in the environmental monitoring equipment industry during the 14th Five Year Plan period is high
According to the “2019 China Ecological Environment Bulletin” released by the China Environmental Monitoring Center on June 2, 2020, as of the end of 2019, the monitoring network of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment includes 1436 urban environmental air quality monitoring points in 337 prefecture level and above cities, approximately 1000 precipitation monitoring points in 469 cities (districts, counties) (including 337 prefecture level and above cities and some county-level cities), 1931 surface water quality evaluation, assessment, and ranking sections (points) in 978 rivers and 112 lakes (reservoirs), 902 centralized drinking water source monitoring sections (points) in 336 prefecture level and above cities, 1434 national control monitoring points for seawater environmental quality, and 31 provinces. 2583 ecological environment quality monitoring counties and approximately 80000 urban acoustic environment monitoring points in 337 prefecture level and above cities, 1416 environmental ionizing radiation monitoring points and 44 environmental electromagnetic radiation monitoring points.
In 2019, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the “Outline of Ecological Environment Monitoring Plan (2020-2035)”, which completed the optimization and adjustment of the national environmental air, surface water, and marine ecological environment monitoring network during the 14th Five Year Plan period. Among them, the number of air stations increased from 1436 to nearly 1800, and urban stations were filled in and replenished; The number of surface water sections has increased from 1931 to 3700, achieving “four full coverage” of the main streams and important tributaries of the ten major river basins, prefecture level and above cities, provincial and municipal boundaries of important water bodies, and important water functional areas. The number of ocean monitoring points has also been integrated and optimized to 1400, achieving coordinated management of nearshore and nearshore areas.
Environmental protection is a fundamental national policy in China, and the energy-saving and environmental protection industry has been listed as one of the seven strategic emerging industries that China is currently focusing on cultivating and developing. The environmental protection industry is driven by policies, regulations, and supervision. With the strengthening of environmental demands, especially during the 13th Five Year Plan period, the domestic environmental protection market has shown an unprecedented trend of rapid development. Environmental monitoring, as a branch of the environmental protection industry, also has a market potential of nearly 100 billion yuan. According to data released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the sales revenue of environmental monitoring equipment in China was 6.5 billion yuan in 2017. According to the 2019 annual report data of China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Equipment Co., Ltd., a representative enterprise in the industry, the company sold 1980 sets of environmental monitoring equipment in 2019, an increase of 116.39% compared to 915 sets in 2018.
It is expected that in the next few years, China’s environmental monitoring instrument industry will continue to maintain a high growth rate. The sales revenue in 2019 is expected to reach 9.3 billion yuan, and it is projected to reach 21.5 billion yuan by 2025.
Information source: Forward looking website.