The global installed base of active remote tank monitoring (RTM) solutions reached 6.2 million units at the end of 2021, according to a new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight.
Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.9 percent, the active installed base is estimated to reach 23.0 million units worldwide in 2026. Berg Insight estimates that the European market accounted for almost 1.5 million active RTM systems at the end of 2021. The North American market is estimated to be larger than the European at around 2.6 million active units. The Asia-Pacific market is moreover estimated to represent an installed base of about 1.4 million RTM systems. South America and Middle East & Africa are smaller markets having installed bases of 310,000 units and 434,000 units respectively.
There are more than 100 RTM solution vendors active on the market worldwide and this report covers 63 companies. Berg Insight ranks Otodata once again as the leading RTM solution provider in terms of the active installed base worldwide with an installed base of about 1.6 million RTM units. Otodata is based in Canada and primarily focuses on the fuel reseller segment in North America. Otodata has so far acquired 3 companies to boost its growth plans: Wise Telemetry in April 2021, Wireless Applications Corporation (WACnGO) in December 2021 and AIUT’s LPG branch in June 2022. Anova and SkyBitz (Ametek) were in second and third place having achieved installed bases of about 890,000 units and 195,000 units respectively. Anova has done a string of acquisitions including Independent Technologies, Wikon, ISA – Intelligent Sensing Anywhere, iTank (Sierra Wireless) and Silicon Controls to become the second largest RTM solution vendor with more than 2,000 customers in 75 countries. 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 Tank Utility followed in fourth and fifth place and had installed bases of 172,000 and 125,000 tank monitoring systems respectively. Sensile Technologies, FoxInsights, Angus Energy, Kingspan, Dunraven Systems and Powelectrics are also ranked among the largest providers with 60,000–100,000 units each. Other RTM solution providers with installed bases of 21,000–50,000 RTM systems in active use at the end of 2021 include Varec, ATEK Access Technologies, Banner Engineering, FreeWave, GreenCityZen, Insite Platform Partners, SilentSoft, Schmitt Industries and Tecson.
Merger and acquisition activity on this market is just about to commence at the same time as new innovative companies enter the market. Anova and Otodata have been the most ambitious consolidators on the market so far with 5 and 3 acquisitions respectively.
Johan Fagerberg, Principal Analyst, Berg Insight, said:
“Additional companies have recently started to look at in-organic grow opportunities more actively including for instance Tekelek that acquired Dunraven Systems in Q4-2021 and Sigicom that picked up ETM Mätteknik during in Q1-2022.”
Mr. Fagerberg anticipates that the market consolidation of the remote tank monitoring industry will accelerate in the next five years.