Global Industrial Fasteners

Global Industrial Fasteners

Global demand for industrial fasteners is forecast to increase 4.7% per year to $119 billion in 2027. Market value will be driven by an acceleration in real demand growth due to expanding manufacturing activity worldwide. However, a slowdown in pricing growth relative to the highly inflated 2017-2022 period will temper the pace of gains somewhat.

OEM Motor Vehicle Market Poised for Strong Rebound

The motor vehicle manufacturing market – the largest global outlet for fastener sales – significantly underperformed most other industrial fastener markets during the 2017-2022 period. Demand was hampered by supply chain issues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably the global automotive chip shortage. Insufficient component supply significantly limited motor vehicle production from 2020 through 2022, leaving producers unable to meet demand.

While the chip shortage has yet to be fully resolved as of July 2023, this issue is expected to ease significantly as 2023 progresses and cease to be major constraint by 2025. As a result, automakers will rapidly step up production to meet pent-up demand, driving strong growth in related fastener sales. Advances in the motor vehicle market will be further supported by the ongoing transition to electric vehicles, which will require expanded collaboration between fastener suppliers and automakers to develop products for new vehicle platforms.

Price Growth to Ease as Materials Supply Stabilizes, but Prices Will Remain Elevated

Industrial fastener markets have, in recent years, been plagued by volatility in raw materials prices; steel, in particular, spiked in 2021 and 2022 and precipitated elevated fastener price growth in those years. At the global level, this served to expand the market’s value because OEMs who rely on fasteners had little recourse but to keep buying regardless of cost. However, this intensified the role of pricing pressures in shaping the market and accelerated manufacturing shifts from high-income European countries to Asian nations.

Materials and energy prices generally began to stabilize in the second half of 2022, returning to levels that more closely resembled those from the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, price growth is expected to slow significantly going forward. However, the inflationary pressures associated with the pandemic have largely been internalized into supply chains – e.g., via increased labor costs – and fastener prices are not expected to return to pre-2020 levels.

Production Increasingly Shifting to Asia/Pacific Region

The Asia/Pacific region is a massive net exporter of industrial fasteners, and its share of global production is expected to rise going forward. Production is supported by strong materials supply since China and a handful of other countries in the region dominate global steel production. Higher-income countries like the US are engaged in efforts to support their domestic fastener industries, partly due to greater concerns over supply chain security following pandemic-related disruptions. As a result, fastener trade between China, the US, and the EU will continue to be impacted by government attempts to regulate trade. However, the fundamentals of material supply mean that non-Asian nations will face significant challenges in swaying production elsewhere.

Study Description

This Freedonia industry study analyzes the $95 billion global industrial fasteners industry. It presents historical demand data (2012, 2017, and 2022) and forecasts (2027 and 2032) by product (standard-grade fasteners, aerospace-grade fasteners), market (original equipment manufacturing, maintenance/repair/operations, construction), and region (North America, Central and South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia/Pacific, Africa/Mideast). The study also evaluates company market share and competitive analysis on industry competitors including Berkshire Hathaway, ITW, LISI, Nifco, and Stanley Black & Decker.