The global market for Belt Drives is projected to reach US$7.3 billion by 2025, driven by broad based economic and manufacturing growth across the world and the resulting improvement in demand for conveyor equipment, material handling equipment, construction equipment, and heavy industrial equipment. Power transmission by belt drive is the most common engineering design in power trains supported by numerous benefits they offer such as simple & less complex in design & are economical in terms of cost; eliminates the need for parallel shafts in the engineering design & offers reasonable jam protection; reduced noise & vibration, and higher machinery life as a result of the efficient shock absorption; requires no lubrication & therefore entails less maintenance; high power transmission efficiency at 95% to 98%. The growing focus of manufacturing plants on enhancing energy efficiency is spurring interest in premium belt drives such as synchronous belts drives, marking the market's slow migration away from the standard V-belts. Other major trends in the market include focus on easy maintenance and the ensuing preference for belt drives over chain drives in the food processing sector; strong demand for continuously variable transmission (CVT) technology which epitomizes a belt and pulley system instead of a traditional physical gear architecture and the resulting opening up of opportunity in the automotive sector; mechanization of agriculture, strong demand for combines and harvesters and a parallel increase in opportunities for agriculture belt drives; rising preference for belt drive drilling rigs against the backdrop of recovering oil prices after a prolonged period of slump and the resulting improvement in investments in oil & gas exploration; improvement in trade and retail including e-commerce and the resulting robust investments in warehouse management systems including materials handling equipment.

Automation and industry 4. 0 is also expected to accelerate deployments of belt & pulley systems and conveyors with advanced features such as IoT-compatible units with AI and ML features, among others. Also referred to as the fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4. 0 draws together the Internet of Things (IoT), the Internet of Services (IoS), and Cyber-Physical Systems in industrial environments to facilitate implementation of a highly innovative and high-tech manufacturing model. Industry 4. 0 places high thrust on communication and cooperation of cyber-physical systems with humans and among themselves in real-time, over the IoT network, with IoS playing the role of an inter-connecting platform for delivering internal as well as cross-organizational services to participants across the organization value chain. Production line management forms the very important aspect and ranks among the core modules in implementation of Industry 4. 0 strategy. Rapidly evolving role of Industry 4. 0 in modern 'Smart Factory' environments is therefore poised to augment the market prospects for conveyors and belt & pulley systems made in advanced designs. IoT enabled conveyors and belt & pulley systems typically aid industrial enterprises in remote monitoring, failed part identification, bar code tracking, and predictive maintenance of the system and the process. Leveraging the IIoT-enabled conveyor systems featuring sensor nodes, voltage sensor, temperature sensor, and vibration sensor, will enable enterprises to augment their operations in a seamless manner. Asia-Pacific including China is a major market led by factors such as healthy economic growth; rapid industrialization; expanding manufacturing base against the backdrop of the region's emergence as the global manufacturing hub; robust consumption of processed food, industrialization of food production and increased opportunities for belt drives in food processing equipment; recovering construction activity, increased sales of construction equipment, and expanding opportunity for belt drive systems in power transmission component manufacturing. Other emerging markets also in the spotlight for their growth potential include Latin America and the Middle East.