While still considered laggers in the digital transformation space, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the chemical industry to accept that digital transformation is critical to its future success. According to a new analysis by global technology intelligence firm ABI Research, chemical manufacturer's investment into digital transformation will grow at a CAGR of 6% between 2022 and 2031, reaching US$7.4 billion.

Investment into data analytics to better understand plant conditions and optimize production will grow to be worth up to US$1 billion in 2031. Supporting this will be continued investment in industrial device and application services, alongside security, both seeing fair growth of CAGR 5.9% and 8.4% respectively.

"The chemical industry is facing significant challenges in both increasing margin pressures, calls for greater sustainability in production, and a declining labor force. As such, to increase production efficiency and maintain staff safety, chemical manufacturers are investing into technologies that monitor and analyze operations, simulate process optimization, and transfer key information from senior to junior staff," explains James Prestwood, Industrial and Manufacturing Research Analyst at ABI Research.

"Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital transformation agenda within the chemical industry has been pushed more into the spotlight. Plans that were slowly being implemented, or even relegated to pilot purgatory, have been given a new injection of life," Prestwood concludes.