The global installed base of active remote tank monitoring (RTM) solutions reached 2.5 million units at the end of 2018, according to a new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.3 percent, the active installed base is estimated to reach 11.9 million units worldwide in 2023. Berg Insight estimates that the European market accounted for more than 0.6 million active RTM systems at the end of 2018. The North American market is estimated to be larger than the European at around 0.9 million active units. The Asia-Pacific market is moreover estimated to represent an installed base of about 0.7 million RTM systems at the end of 2018. South America and Middle East & Africa are smaller markets having installed bases of 127,000 units and 253,000 units respectively.
There are more than 100 RTM solution vendors active on the market worldwide and this report covers 58 companies. Berg Insight ranks Anova (formerly DataOnline) as the leading RTM solution provider in terms of the active installed base worldwide with an installed base of about 380,000 RTM units at the end of 2018. Anova has done a string of acquisitions including Independent Technologies, Wikon, ISA and iTank (Sierra Wireless) to become the largest RTM solution vendor with more than 1,000 customers in 70 countries. Silicon Controls and SkyBitz (Ametek) were in second and third place having achieved installed bases of about 250,000 units and 130,000 units respectively. Silicon Controls is based in Australia and primarily focuses on gas tanks whereas SkyBitz is based in the US and most of its tanks under management can be found in North America and a few in Mexico and other countries. Polish AIUT and Tecson from Germany shared fourth place and had each an installed base of 100,000 tank monitoring systems. ISA – Intelligent Sensing Anywhere and Sensile Technologies follow and have reached 75,000 and 70,000 tanks under management respectively. Varec, ATEK Access Technologies, Dunraven Systems and Kingspan are also ranked among the largest providers with 35,000–50,000 units each. Other RTM solution providers with installed bases of more than 25,000 RTM systems in active use at the end of 2018 include Powelectrics, Tank Utility, FreeWave, SilentSoft and Insite Platform Partners.
Merger and acquisition activity on this market is just about to commence at the same time as new innovative companies enter the market. “Anova is the most ambitious consolidator on the market and has become the largest RTM solution vendor worldwide as the result of 4 major acquisitions in the past 18 months”, said Johan Fagerberg, Principal Analyst, Berg Insight. An additional recent transaction was the merger between Hawk Measurement and FLO-CORP in August 2019. Mr. Fagerberg anticipates that the market consolidation of the remote tank monitoring industry will accelerate in the next five years.