Survey: Investment in energy-efficiency set to accelerate

Zurich, Switzerland – The tire & rubber product manufacturing sector is heavily reliant on intensive energy-consuming processes, particularly at the mixing & compounding stages, but also during extrusion, moulding and materials-handling.

As such, the sector should be to the fore among industrial companies which, according to a recent ABB-commissioned global survey*, are set to ramp up investments in energy-efficient technology over the coming years.

In its ‘Energy Efficiency Investment Survey 2022’ ABB found that 90% of companies plan to increase spending over the next five years while 52% plan to achieve ‘net zero’ within the same period.

The growing impact of energy costs on profitability is adding further impetus to the energy-efficiency drive, with around 67% of the respondents upgrading their equipment.

Some 54 % of the companies are already investing in equipment such as high-efficiency electric motors controlled by variable speed drives, while 40% plan to make energy-efficiency improvements this year.

Climate change, growing urbanisation and rising geopolitical tensions will “make energy security and sustainability even more critical,” said Tarak Mehta, president of ABB Motion.

“Improving energy efficiency is an essential strategy to address these potential crises,” added Mehta. “Therefore, the acceleration in investment highlighted by this survey is positive news.”

Half of the respondents listed cost as the biggest barrier to improving energy efficiency and 37% felt downtime was a barrier.

Also concerning is that only 41% of respondents felt they had all the information needed regarding energy efficiency measures.

“It is vital to help stakeholders across industry understand that net zero need not mean net cost… energy efficiency is good for business and good for the environment,” said Mehta.

Both suppliers and governments have a role to play in promoting the message that adopting energy efficient technology offers a fast return on investment while cutting CO2 emissions, the ABB Motion boss concluded.

Respondents reported that, on average, 23% of their annual operating costs are attributable to energy usage, while 53% indicated that rising energy costs are a moderate or substantial threat to profitability.

Despite cost being a significant barrier to investing in improving energy efficiency, cost savings were the most important reason for investing for 59% of survey participants.

*The global survey conducted by Sapio Research targeted 2,294 companies in 13 countries, ranging in size from 500 to 5,000 or more employees.