Grain Storage Silos Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

Grain Storage Silos Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

The grain storage silos market is projected to register a CAGR of 4.5% during the forecast period (2022-2027).

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the silos business, there was no significant impact on the supply chain and global operations of silos. Due to the exemption of food and agricultural services due to lockdown restrictions, the grain storage silos market was less affected by the pandemic. As an impact of the pandemic, the silos market experienced a sluggish movement in 2020 with little turbulences. The market studied is recovering gradually and is gaining momentum, with an increasing demand for grain storage due to improved economic conditions. It is anticipated to experience a positive outlook during the forecast period.

The key drivers for this market include fluctuating grain prices, rising demand for large-capacity storage, and increasing investments and technological developments in the market. For instance, in India, in 2021, National Commodities Management Services Limited (NCML), India's largest private-sector agriculture post-harvest management company, launched four public storage silo facilities in Haryana. Due to the increase in grain stocks every year, there is a need to have larger storage capacities, which is driving the market globally.

North America Dominates the market. Farmers in the region rarely hold substantial inventories at the end of a marketing year. Inventories of wheat and barley, corn, soybeans, and other grains are almost entirely held off-farm. Companies in the region are also expanding silos storage capacity to store large volume of grains.

The growing demand for grain storage from the leading grain-producing countries in the world, namely, United States, Russia, India, Brazil, and others, have driven the grain storage silos industry during the study period. Further, rising input costs and the need for heavy investments for the storage of grains have led to a rise in demand for silos across all the regions. According to the International Grains Council (IGC), the global stocks of wheat increased from 171.0 million metric ton in 2012-2013 to 268.0 million metric ton in 2017-2018, and in 2020, the stock accounted for 278.0 million metric ton.

Further Egypt relies on imports for grains, especially wheat, the conflict in United Kingdomraine and Russia has caused wheat supply challenges. Even with additional measures to diversify its wheat supply, rising global prices would impede Egypt’s ability to purchase large volumes of wheat from international sources. Therefore, Egypt has continued to build new silos and expand its storage capacity, which may eventually allow Egypt to limit imports to withstand price spikes.

Silos are cost-effective modes of grain storage due to the automation of grain transport, resulting in low operational costs in the long run. The loading and unloading costs of silos are also low than grain warehouses, as automation is operated by the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. The benefits of cost-effectiveness and the large holding capacity of silos are driving the grain storage silos market globally.

North America held the largest share in using silos for grain storage in 2020. As per United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in the last 10 years, the on-farm storage has increased by 1.6 billion bushels and off-farm storage by 2.2 billion bushels, registering a growth of 14% and 24%, respectively.​ The producers in the country mostly prefer flat bottom or hopper bottom silos as they can be used for long-term storage.​

US grain storage capacity has grown substantially in the last 20 years. In 2019, the national grain storage capacity was approximately 25 billion bushels. Corn, soybeans, wheat and other crops storage differ with respect to absolute quantity, harvest timing, and production location. Nationally, corn dominates grain inventories. At the post-harvest corn makes up more than three-quarters of US grain inventories with the majority of corn inventory held on-farm.

As per USDA, the recent imposition of tariffs by both United States and China on primary commodities led to the accumulation of grain surplus for the US farmers in 2018, resulting in 20% of the total available storage being filled with soybean, corn, and wheat from the previous year's harvest. This is anticipated to further boost the need for more large storage silos across the country during the forecast period, as the existing ones are reaching full capacity.

The grain storage silos market is fragmented in nature, in which major players accounted for 20.6% and others accounted for 79.4% of the market in 2020. Ahrens Agri, Buhler Group, Sioux Steel Company, Symaga, and Silos Cordoba are the major players in the market studied. New product launches, partnerships, and acquisitions are the major strategies adopted by the leading companies in the market globally.

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support