How’s the ETRM/CTRM Market?
With the first half of the year behind us now, we can start to get a gauge of how the market for ETRM/CTRM products is looking. A couple of the vendors that I’ve talked with, namely Solarc and Triple Point, are reporting that they’ve set records for license sales during the period.
Solarc, who naturally say they can’t confirm or deny unannounced deals, appears to have built on a solid first quarter by landing a bunch of new clients in second quarter, including (if industry scuttlebutt proves correct) big wins at BP and Standard Bank in London (a company that now joins a list of more than a half dozen banks that use RightAngle).
So, do record sales at Solarc and Triple Point (who I will discuss in additional detail in the next day or two) indicate that the market for ETRM/CTRM products is growing at a record setting pace? In a word, “no”; this is not a case of rising tide lifting all ships. While the market is relatively strong, and certainly compared to 2009, it seems that record sales levels are not the rule throughout the industry. In fact, it is very likely that these companies’ successes are coming at the expense of several of their competitors.
While we at CommodityPoint do think the market for new products will continue to show growth through the year, in total that growth will be somewhat muted when compared to the fast and furious sales that took place prior to the market meltdown in July of 2008.
We are going to be developing our bi-annual CTRM Market Sizing Report soon and once complete, the report will provide a very granular view of the global market for new products, including a look at the market by commodity, industry segment and geography. Look for the new report to be out sometime around the end of the third quarter.