Conveyor Belt Market in Mining Industry - Growth, Trends, Forecasts (2020 - 2025)

The global conveyor belt market in the mining industry (henceforth, referred to as the market studied) was valued at USD 1,624.2 million in 2019, and it is expected to reach USD 2010.5 million by 2025 registering a CAGR of 3.78% during 2020-2025. The mining industry heavily relies on conveyor belts to transport materials taken for processing. Hence, the industry witnesses an increase in conveyor belts’ investments as it makes operations cleaner, safer, and more productive.

- In June 2020, Coal India Ltd had planned to invest INR 157 billion in conveyor belts that will replace road movement between mines and wagons. The first phase will upgrade infrastructure at 35 mines, each with a capacity of four million tonnes per annum (MTPA) or more at six subsidiaries of the company. This involved capital expenditure (Capex) of about Rs 12,300 crore and a total capacity of 406 MTPA. Phase-2 includes 14 projects in which four subsidiaries will spend Rs 3,400 crore for a total capacity of 100.5 MTPA.
- In August 2019, Coal India announced an INR 100 billion investment in conveyor belts to transport coal directly from mines more cheaply and cleanly without using trucks. It will also cut down theft as well as the diversion of coal and help maintain quality.
- In the mining industry, drive technology has a significant influence on conveyor performance and system availability. Three-phase asynchronous motors plus gear units have proved a robust, quick-to-install, low-maintenance variant here. Players like Siemens has decades of experience in bulk material conveyor technology. High availability, proven technology, and low costs are the advantages of drive solutions for these applications.
- In mining industry practices, the required output and desired the mining operator specifies rotary speed as design parameters, determining the heat to be dissipated, which may strongly influence the dimensioning process. This has partly resulted in operating conditions that make a gear unit advisable larger than the output originally necessitates. If conveyor belts operate in climatic zones that are unusually warm or even prone to extreme heat-cold fluctuations, a lot of attention must be paid to cool. For this reason, Siemens has developed correspondingly efficient cooling solutions for its three gear-unit series, which comprise a total of 46 conveyor belt drive sizes. So in many cases, a smaller gear unit may prove to be sufficient.
- The COVID-19 pandemic had major impacts on the global economy across all industries, including mining. Like other industries, the mining industry is witnessing immediate challenges to stop the spread of the virus amongst the workers and ensure that the staff is safe and healthy.

Key Market Trends
Steel Cord to Witness Significant Growth Rate

- A conveyor belt is a vital element of the conveyor that is used continuously in transport facilities in fields, such as mining, coal, port, electric power, chemical industry, metallurgy, architecture, and food. In the mining field, the strength of the conveyor belt largely determines the carrying capacity and has a great impact on operational safety. Thus, in order to increase the strength of the conveyor belt, steel cords are arranged inside the rubber.
- There have been increasing cases of belt broken accidents, which was a result of a decrease in splice (the weakest region of the conveyor belt) strength. This has led to the development of detection devices that work using various methods.
- For instance, German Phoenix Conveyor Belt System Co. Ltd designed a steel cord conveyor belt detection system using X-ray detection technology. It is a non-destructive testing system for the steel cord conveyor, which identifies accurate and reliable detection of splice twitch and steel cord breakage.
- The technological processes in the mining industry include various raw material transportation operations that consume remarkable amounts of energy and generate a significant share of the overall mining costs. Thus, the biggest savings that can be achieved by a mining company are through an energy-efficient conveyor belt, resulting in reducing CO2 emissions.
- nIt has been estimated that 41% of global electricity is provided by coal-fired power plants, and coal is one of the primary sources of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. It is, therefore, imperative to reduce the energy consumption of the conveyor system.

North America to Dominate Market Share

- North America is a prominent market for conveyor belts due to its continued adoption across the mining industry. The market growth of conveyor belts is dependent on the inherent demand for mining in the country. According to the United States Geological Survey, the estimated value of non-fuel minerals produced at the US mines in 2019 was USD 86.3 billion, and coal mining represented 24% of the production value of US mining operations in 2019, accounting for 26% of mining employment.
- In the United States, government support for mining in the form of executive orders, such as for critical minerals development or in the form of regulatory changes, has aided the industry. Despite this, permitting continues to be a deterrent to mining project development in the United States.
- Canada is home to one of the most active mining industries worldwide. According to the Mining Association of Canada, the country ranks in the top five members involved in the production of 13 major minerals and metals, including uranium, nickel, potash, cobalt, aluminum, diamonds, titanium, and gold.
- With the United States’ high dependence on Canada for the majority of the commodities imported, mines in Canada are expected to grow at a relatively faster pace. As a result, strong demand for base and precious metals has driven exploration and expansion, thus driving the mining industry’s growth in Canada.
- According to the Mining Association of Canada, in 2019, the estimated capital expenditure on mining and mineral processing amounted to nearly CAD 13.58 billion in Canada. Although capital spending covers all the four stages of the industry, around 90% is typically invested in the first two stages, namely extraction (Stage 1) and smelting/refining (Stage 2).

Competitive Landscape
The Conveyor Belt Market in Mining Industry is highly competitive with high barriers in exit of a firm from the industry. The firms in order to retain their market position keep on innovating anf=d entering into strategic partnerships.

- September 2020 - Microsoft and Tenovastrengthened their partnership for Industry 4.0 by leveraging on Microsoft’s platform Azure and innovative solutions of Tenovafor the steel industry. The companies are aiming to lead the digital transformation of the sector for global economic growth by manufacturing products for a total value of 2,500 billion each year and employing more than 6 million people worldwide.
- August 2020 - Fenner Dunlop Australia Pty Ltd announced USD 23.5 million plant expansion in Kwinana. It opened a USD 70 million state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Kwinana, Western Australia, in 2009, specifically built to produce steel cord belting. Again, it invested USD 20 million to install a second press line to double the plant’s production capacity and increase the Kwinana workforce by 30%.

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