In 2026, the total market size of mixed-flow water pumps in China is expected to exceed 41.5 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of 9.2%. The export volume is approximately 9.1 billion yuan. Southeast Asia accounts for more than 35% of the export destinations, while the Middle East experiences a 15% year-on-year increase due to the expansion of seawater desalination projects. The global axial-flow and mixed-flow pumps targeting the "Belt and Road Initiative" are expected to exceed 3.5 billion US dollars in exports by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 12%. This is two different main lines from the previous report focusing on "solid-liquid wear resistance + mine tailings" - this time, the main venue for medium and large-flow mixed-flow pumps (including vertical guide vanes, horizontal, and cross-flow) is in water diversion, agricultural drainage, seawater desalination pre-treatment, and municipal flood control in four large-flow and high-head scenarios, with a single-unit flow capacity covering 0.3–12 m³/s and a head range of 8–25 m, precisely filling the gap between centrifugal pumps and axial-flow pumps.
Compliance side: IE4 + CBAM dual pressure, European leading enterprises invest 18% in low-carbon research
The new version of the EU's ecological design directive has mandated the IE4 level for industrial pump motors, with pump products having an EEI of no less than 0.6. The revised version, which came into effect in January 2026, further reduces standby energy consumption by 23%, directly boosting the installation rate of intelligent control modules. The European Pump Industry Association's 2025 white paper shows that leading companies such as KSB, Sulzer, and Andritz have invested 18% in research and development of low-carbon materials, hydraulic optimization, and digital energy efficiency management. Their energy efficiency is over 10% better than international standards under some load conditions. The revenue of the European mixed-flow pump service and renovation market is expected to increase by 14.3% year-on-year in 2025, with energy efficiency optimization services contributing over 60%.
The actual pressure on Chinese factories is that the CBAM carbon border adjustment mechanism has begun to trace upstream of pump-related products - if the carbon footprints of the three processes of casting, motor, and painting cannot be verified, they will be rejected in the first round of EU power station and municipal tenders. In 2026, the leading factories' strategy is to package "IE4 permanent magnet synchronous motor + variable frequency drive + carbon footprint ledger", and this single item can achieve an 8%–12% premium in the EU direction.
Application differentiation: Southeast Asia for flood control, Middle East for desalination, and domestic for the Yangtze River large-scale protection
Southeast Asia: Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand have an average annual pump demand of 185,000 units for agricultural irrigation and urban drainage, with Chinese brands accounting for 28% of the market share; after the optimization of the RCEP origin rules, tariffs have been reduced from 5%–8% to 0–3%, and the re-delivery rate of mobile mixed-flow pump stations (pump + diesel engine + frame + traction) has increased after the first batch of 64 units were delivered in Indonesia.
Middle East: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran have an average annual demand of 97,000 units for seawater desalination pre-treatment and oilfield water injection; Chinese brands account for 22% of the market share; the primary water intake for desalination is usually a vertical mixed-flow pump, and corrosion-resistant cast iron + bronze impellers are the mainstream specifications.
Domestic support: The large-scale environmental protection of the Yangtze River and the ecological restoration of the Yellow River have driven the procurement of large-scale environmental protection mixed-flow pumps to exceed 8 billion yuan, and the proportion of vertical mixed-flow pumps in water diversion projects has risen to 40%.
Intelligent operation and maintenance has become a standard.
In the first half of 2026, the proportion of mixed-flow pumps with IoT monitoring in new orders has exceeded 60% - the four data points of remote vibration, bearing temperature rise, cavitation warning, and energy consumption curve are the mandatory items for evaluation by farmers in Southeast Asia and desalination owners in the Middle East. The model of simply selling pump bodies is shifting to "intelligent pump station overall solution", and models with operation and maintenance have a premium of 30%–50%.
