How Much is Corrosion Costing You?

The Secret Cost of Corrosion: Why Corrosion Undermines Profitability and How Industrial Painting Can Stop It

Corrosion-caused accidents not only grab headlines, the kind that live in Google infamy forever; they put employees, customers, and sometimes residents who live near industrial settings at risk. These high-profile incidents become case studies for negligence and the springboard for new industry regulations.

What often goes overlooked in conversations about corrosion, both in the private sector and governmental levels, are the unanticipated financial losses it causes.

The industrial painters at Eagle Eye Services see firsthand how businesses lose significant amounts of money, either directly or indirectly from corrosion at their facility. In the following post, we break down precisely how big those losses can be and why industrial painting can help to prevent them. Read on to learn more.

How Much Corrosion Directly Costs

In 2002, the U.S. Department of Transportation released the findings of a two-year study, outlining the cost of corrosion by industry. At the time, the report estimated the U.S. economy could attribute a $276 billion annual loss directly to corrosion in infrastructure, government, production and manufacturing, utilities, and transportation.

Adjusted for inflation, that $276 billion loss would be more than $449 billion in 2023. That means, each year, corrosion costs the U.S. an economic loss the size of companies like Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, and Meta.

How Much Corrosion Costs Indirectly

Now, let’s take a look at the indirect costs. Corrosion leads to decreased productivity and spillage in private and public sectors, most commonly in the form of outages, operational failures, and delays. It also can be the source of litigation, taxation, and increased overhead.

The U.S. Department of Transportation study placed a conservative estimate on the hard-to-quantify indirect costs associated with corrosion, equating it to the losses incurred directly from corrosion.

To put that in perspective, the total annual loss (direct and indirect) at the time of the study was $552 billion. Adjusted for inflation, that would be nearly $900 billion in 2023, meaning corrosion costs the U.S. economy an loss bigger than the gross domestic product of Saudi Arabia each year.

The study highlighted utilities (electric and gas distribution) and production and manufacturing (oil and gas, petroleum refining, and chemical production) as key industries that suffer huge losses as a result of corrosion.

Don’t Let Your Bottomline Corrode. Contact Eagle Eye Services for Your Free Industrial Painting Estimate Today.

Industrial painting is a critical part of any business’ corrosion mitigation strategy. The process inserts layers of chemical protection between industrial equipment and the environmental stressors it faces. Without appropriate industrial painting services and industrial coating, the risk of corrosion escalates.

Our team of industrial painters provide coating, pipeline blasting, and painting services to industrial plants, oil and gas refineries, and power and electric plants throughout the Northeast. To get your free industrial painting estimate, fill out this form. We encourage you to call us directly at (724)754-1122 to discuss schedule an onsite visit to your business.