Ball Bearing Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Product Type (Self-Aligning Ball Bearings, Deep Groove Ball Bearings, Angular Contact Ball Bearings, and Others), By Application (Automotive, Industrial Machinery, Mining & Construction, Medical, and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027

The global ball bearing market size was valued USD 19.08 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 21.90 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 2.1 % during the forecast period.

The increasing demand for ball bearings across various sectors, including machine tools, automotive and evolving advance medical sectors is expected to drive this market growth in the near future. Rising demand for high precision bearing in specific applications is further resulting in the growth of the market. The different types of ball bearings, including self-aligned bearings, are gaining popularity among various end-user segments on account of its insulation against extreme environmental factors. Moreover, increasing adoption of precision engineering in the manufacturing sector is playing an important role in the market. This is owed to the demand from various industries such as aerospace and defense, ship building, energy, many others. All above stated factors are expected to influence the market positively in the coming years.

COVID-19 to Encumber the Production Rate of Ball Bearings Worldwide

The impact of COVID-19 is creating hurdles and is expected to continue for a prolonged period in the near future. The sudden impose of lockdown in various countries in Europe had a drastic impact on the supply chain and operations and transportation in Europe. According to the United Nations (UN) analysis, the global economy possibly will shrink up to 1% in 2020 in accordance with previously forecasted growth of 2.5%. In addition to this, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) stated that the COVID-19 has unsettled the international trade and global supply chain processes.

The European Commission has stated that there will be a 9.2% contraction in the economic activities across the entire key region. Some of the highly affected countries are the United Kingdom, Italy, France, and Spain. These countries are expected to take a while to recover from the effect and thus have a higher impact as compared to other countries. Moreover, these countries have effectively turned the table and are recovering fast with a daily decrease in the number of cases. This has resulted in the increasing trade and transport and positive flux in the ecosystem of the market.  Therefore, the impact of COVID-19 is anticipated to continue not more than the fourth quarter of 2020, owing to the sudden disruption.

LATEST TRENDS

Usage of Advanced Materials in Manufacturing Bearings Units is a Key Market Trend

The market for precision engineering bearings is gaining impetus across various industries wherein chrome steel metal is largely used for ball bearing manufacturing process. These chrome steel bearing results in enhancing the physical properties of the bearings in terms of hardness, wear resistance, hardness, fatigue life, and others in comparison to the traditional ones. In addition, to cater to specific requirements of industries for extreme environment applications is further compelling bearing manufacturers to use tungsten carbide and ceramic material.

DRIVING FACTORS

Rising Demand for Precision Engineering across Various Industries is Propelling the Market Growth

Precision engineering is concerned with designing components, fixtures, and machines that have an extremely low tolerance and are stable over time in case of extreme working conditions. The increasing demand for precision engineering owing to the sudden rise in the utilization of customized bearings is expected to result in the growth of the market revenue.

Furthermore, the manufacturers are emphasizing on the development and manufacturing of precision bearings for power trains and drive parts of artificial satellites, etc., to surge the entire ecosystem.

Evolution of Digitalization and Smart Technologies Embedded in Bearings is Fuelling the Market Growth

Digitalization is one of the important approaches to adopt wireless options across industry verticals. The bearing is digitized by measuring its lubrication state and vibration pattern. These measurements are analyzed to take corrective actions in case of potential problems.

The integration of sensors with bearings evolved into smart bearings. For industrial applications, the sensor measures the direction, temperature, speed, and vibration of these bearings. Also, the introduction of real-time-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial intelligence (AI) is benefitting the end-users to simply track the conditions of their bearings at all times. Moreover, the technological shift towards (EV) Electric Vehicles is found to be positive. It is because; the electric vehicles have bearings with advanced technology than the traditional car with an Internal Combustion (IC) engine.

RESTRAINING FACTORS

Volatility in Raw Material Prices is Hindering the Market Growth

The changes in trade policies, imbalance in supply & demand ecosystem, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, heightened geopolitical risks across different geographies, etc. create a potential impact in the pricing of steel and aluminum bearing materials. Furthermore, the bearing components which comprise of cages, shields, seals, etc. require lubrication at frequent intervals to ensure smooth functioning and low friction. This further leads to a high cost of maintenance resulting in slowing down the market.

SEGMENTATION

By Product Type Analysis

Self-Aligning Ball Bearings to Grow at Faster Pace during Forecast Period

Self-aligning bearing is expected to be the fastest-growing product segment of the market. This is attributed to the high demand from the applications including machine tools such as paper and textile processing machinery.

The high operational speed and efficiency in radial and axial loads handling are expected to drive the adoption of deep groove ball bearings. Furthermore, the angular contact ball bearing supports high processing speed, precision, and rigidity. The other types are likely to have stagnant growth  opportunity owing to their limited demand in the industrial sectors.

By Application Analysis

Medical Applications to Register a Higher CAGR in the Near Future

The robotic surgery (minimally invasive surgery) is gaining momentum in the medical sector owing to its various benefits including reduced pain, discomfort, and shorter recovery time, thus contributing positively to the growth of the market.

Industrial Machinery is anticipated to have substantial growth owing to the moderate need for these bearings in rotating the shafts of several machines. The upsurge in the adoption of the miniature bearing from the automotive sector and increasing applications in various industries including medical, robotics, and machine tools is expected to result in the growth of this market sales in the near future. Similarly, stable growth is expected in the aerospace sector for enhancing the efficiency of the machines integrated into the aircraft.

REGIONAL INSIGHTS

Asia Pacific is expected to exhibit the highest ball bearing market growth over the forecast period. This is attributed to the increasing development of the construction, mining, and automotive industry. The public facility enhancement projects in rural areas are expected to drive the Asia Pacific’s market. According to the study, Asia Pacific construction equipment market is estimated to be more than USD 49 billion and is expected to exhibit growth in the near future.

The surge in mining activities in Asia, North America, and Latin America is expected to positively impact the growth of the ball bearing industry. The mining activity has increased over the past few years in Latin America including Argentina, Chile, and Mexico as a result of large deposits of minerals. For example, the Lithium projects in Argentina include the Caucharí-Olaroz and Salar del Rincón projects which are under development and are valued at approximately USD 425 Million and USD 220 Million respectively.

The automobile sector in Europe holds the major ball bearing market share and is expected to remain the same. Europe has the presence of leading automobile manufacturers along with the largest private investors in R&D. For instance, Mercedes, BMW, Opel, Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche, Fiat, and Ferrari. The evolving construction infrastructure projects in Europe are further expected to drive this type of bearings industry in the near future.

KEY INDUSTRY PLAYERS

Key Players to Rebuild Manufacturing Process

Wide range of products, is the major influencing criteria for the customers across the ball bearings industry, therefore these players emphasize on providing customized and special bearings. Hence, the companies are remanufacturing and rotating the bearing equipment performance within the geographical region to contribute significantly in terms of growth and profitability. For instance, SKF has successfully implemented the ‘Turnaround Plan’ to strengthen its automotive business on the global level. Moreover, The Timken Company is optimizing the capital deployment of bearing products to create long-term shareholder value in the core business.

LIST OF KEY COMPANIES PROFILED:

• NSK Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan)


• Schaeffler AG (Herzogenaurach, Germany)


• Nachi Fujikoshi Corp (Tokyo, Japan)


• Myonic GmbH (Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)


• LYC Bearing Corporation (Henan, P. R. China)


• Luoyang Huigong Bearing Technology Co. Ltd. (Henan, P. R. China)


• Koyo (Nagoya, Japan)


• ISB Industries (Rubiera, Italy)


• NTN Bearing Corporation (Illinois, United States)


• SKF (Gothenburg, Sweden)


• The Timken Company (Ohio, United States)


• THB Bearings (Shanghai, China)

KEY INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS:

• September 2018 – SKF launched its Ball Bearing Units-UC range in India, to cater to the increasing market demand. The product is cost-efficient meeting international standard quality and locally manufactured


• November  2017 – Schaeffler AG in partnership with Audi, and has started to develop the technology, primarily in fields of transmission, engine, bearings, and others to increase the performance density in Formula E. Schaeffler has been developing drive trains for “Formula E” together with Audi since 2017.

REPORT COVERAGE

A growing trend is observed in the penetration of this market position across the industries.  This market research report provides various key insights such as adoption trend analysis, recent industry developments including mergers & acquisitions, ecosystem analysis, macro, and microeconomic factors, consolidated SWOT analysis, key ball bearing industry trends, competitive landscape, and company profiles.

Report Scope & Segmentation