Market conditions continue to bring uncertainty for the fluid power industry and its various customer sectors. Tariffs have now taken effect, resulting in increased costs for businesses and their customers, which is causing many to delay purchasing decisions. The ongoing uncertainty this is causing was evident during the National Fluid Power Association’s Industry & Economic Outlook Conference held in August as the outlooks presented were a bit of a mixed bag – while some economists who presented at the event are seeing signs of recovery in some areas, others expect recovery to hold off until later into 2026.
That said, as our top story in this month’s newsletter points out, there are some market sectors expected to grow in 2026 which will present opportunities for the hydraulics and pneumatics industry. These include the current construction boom for data centers. Large construction machinery will be required to build these facilities, potentially increasing demand for such equipment as well as the fluid power and other components utilized in them. In addition, hydraulics and pneumatics are an important part of data center cooling systems, so as these facilities come online it is likely to prompt demand for fluid power components.
As our top story highlights, industrial applications such as semiconductor production and aerospace manufacturing are anticipated to be the main growth areas in the years ahead, presenting opportunities for pneumatics and industrial hydraulics in particular. Like the mobile equipment sector, technological needs are evolving for the fluid power components and systems utilized in industrial machinery. How so? That’s what we want to hear from you, our readers working in the fluid power industry. So if you have the time, please take our survey to offer your insights on how hydraulics and pneumatics are evolving to meet the requirements of machine tools, packaging machinery and other industrial applications.
You can also reach out to me directly by emailing me at [email protected] to offer your thoughts on this or any other topics you’d like to see covered by Power & Motion.
Sara Jensen, Editor, Power & Motion
