Region / Industry |
Cost of Corrosion |
Reference |
| Aircraft Industry (North America) |
$13 billion per year |
IAR Flyer, Spring 2000 Edition, NRC Institute for
Aerospace Research (Canada). V.S. Agarwala: "Corrosion Detection and
Monitoring - A Review", Paper No. 271, Corrosion 2000, NACE International, 2000. |
| Aircraft, Military (United States of America) |
$ 3 billion per year |
V.S. Agarwala: "Corrosion Detection and
Monitoring - A Review", Paper No. 271, Corrosion 2000, NACE International, 2000. |
| Aircraft (lost revenue when grounded for corrosion
maintenance/repairs) |
$100,000 per day |
IAR Flyer, Spring 2000 Edition, NRC Institute for Aerospace
Research (Canada). |
| Air Force and Navy - Australia |
>$50 million per year |
Web site of Defense Science and Technology Organization
(DSTO, Australia) |
| Army - US |
$10 billion per year (estimate) |
M. Youson: "Invisible Enemy", Engineering, September 2003. |
| Army - US |
$2 billion per year, related to painting and paint removal
(estimate) |
M. Youson: "Invisible Enemy", Engineering, September 2003. |
| Australia |
about 2% of GDP. |
Materials World, December 2001, p.30. |
| Australia |
around $8 billion in 1982 |
R. Francis: "Beating Rust on Farm Buildings", published
on web site of Australian Corrosion Association Inc. |
| Australia |
A$1-5 billion (presumably direct costs) |
CSIRO (January 2008 web page describing holistic approach to
corrosion control) |
| Automobiles in Finland |
about US$160 per car yearly
(about US$300 million in total per year) |
Studies conducted in the 1990's by the Finnish Road Administration,
published at www.tieh.fi/winter.htm |
| Automobiles (USA) |
0.25% of GNP attributed to motor vehicle corrosion (in
1998) |
Materials Performance, March 2002, p.31. |
| Automobiles (USA) |
$23.4 billion per year cost to
American consumers due to: increased manufacturing costs, repairs and
maintenance, depreciation. (Costs of reduced safety not included) |
www.corrosioncost.com "Corrosion
Costs and Preventive Strategies in the United States", Report by CC
Technologies Laboratories, Inc. to Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Office of
Infrastructure Research and Development, Report FHWA-RD-01-156, September 2001. |
| Bridges (USA Highway Bridges) |
$30 billion (1999 dollars) to remediate corrosion-induced
structural deficiencies |
Materials Performance, March 2002, p.31. |
| Bridge (Old Severn Bridge) in England |
£20 million to mitigate corrosion (projected), with £3
million previously spent on corrosion assessment of suspension cables |
BBC news (on-line edition), March 7, 2007. |
| Coast Guard, United States, Aircraft |
$20 million per year |
Lee Ann Tegtmeier: "U.S. Coast Guard Treads in Deep Water",
Overhaul & Maintenance Magazine (May 1, 2002). |
| Concrete, reinforced |
link to separate page |
|
| David statue by Michelangelo - restoration |
around $500,000 (estimate) |
L. McLaren: "Bath time for David", in The Globe and Mail,
October 1, 2002. |
| Easter Island Statues 
|
around $10 million in restoration costs (note that the
tourism industry associated with these statues reportedly generates several million
dollars each year) |
link to separate page for further
details |
| Eiffel Tower (Paris) 
|
1989 refurbishment costs of 200
million FF. About 50-60 tons of paint are applied every 7 years by some 25 painters, as
corrosion protection for the > 7 thousand ton steel structure. Corrosion damage is a
major consideration in the maintenance / refurbishment requirements. |
Articles by A. Roith, University Bayreuth and M. Martin, IZA published at
www.uni-bayreuth.de and www.iza.com |
| Gas Pipeline Industry (North America) |
$80 million per year purchased in coatings
to coat new pipelines and recoat existing pipelines (1993 reference). |
P. Cavassi and M. Cornago: "The Cost of Corrosion in the Oil and Gas
Industry", JPCL, May 1999, pp30-40. (Background Section on p.34, with additional
references.) |
Golden Boy Statue - restoration project, Winnipeg, Canada |
$ 6 million (cost estimate) for corrosion related repairs |
M. O'Malley: "Winnipeg's Golden Boy", CBC News Online, October
8, 2002.
|
| Helicopters - US Army (1998 estimate) |
$ 4 billion spent on corrosion repairs (estimate) |
MTTC News, Volume 8, Issue 9 (August 19, 2003), under article
"Corrosion costs eat up DOD budget". |
| Japan |
0.8-1.0 % of GNP (1997 estimate of direct corrosion costs) |
National Institute for Materials Science (Japan). |
| Military - USA |
more than $ 20 billion per year (as reported by GAO) |
MTTC News, Volume 8, Issue 9 (August 19, 2003), under article
"Corrosion costs eat up DOD budget". |
| Military cargo trucks - USA |
$850 per truck in replacement parts in the fifth service
year. Anticipated to escalate to $17,500 per truck in the 11th service year |
1998 TACOM study referenced in Eastern Michigan University Press
release dated June 8, 2005 and titled "EMU Coatings Research Institute continues war
effort against corrosion". |
| Navy - USA 
|
Around 25 % of total fleet maintenance budget (estimate)
spent on corrosion prevention and control |
United States General Accounting Office, Report No. GAO-03-753, 2003. |
| Nuclear reactors - a particular problem of voluminous corrosion product
formation on in-reactor steel components |
£100 million per annum |
"Jack Harris column" in the journal Materials World (September
2004 issue). |
| Oil and Gas (Agip) |
about $0.40 per barrel of oil produced, the
economic impact of corrosion |
P. Cavassi and M. Cornago: "The Cost of Corrosion in the Oil and Gas
Industry", JPCL, May 1999, pp30-40. |
| Oil and Gas (North Sea production platforms) |
60% of all maintenance costs related to corrosion, directly
or indirectly (1993) |
P. Cavassi and M. Cornago: "The Cost of Corrosion in the Oil and Gas
Industry", JPCL, May 1999, pp30-40. (Background Section on p.34, with additional
references.) |
| Pipelines (Gas and Liquid Transmission, USA) |
~ $7 billion |
www.corrosioncost.com "Corrosion
Costs and Preventive Strategies in the United States", Report by CC
Technologies Laboratories, Inc. to Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Office of
Infrastructure Research and Development, Report FHWA-RD-01-156, September 2001. |
| Power Generation (USA) |
$5 billion - $10 billion annually for the
U.S. electric power industry (EPRI estimate). In steam-electric generating plants,
corrosion costs exceeded 10% of total power cost. Up to 50% of outages attributable to
corrosion. |
InTech Magazine Online published at www.isa.org,
October 1, 1998. |
Roads, Sidewalks, Bridges
Toronto (Canada) |
$110 million is to be spent by this city on the repair of
roads, sidewalks and bridges in 2005 ... with a backlog of $235 million deferred due to
budget constraints. |
K. McGran's article "On the road to ruin?", Toronto Star,
February 5, 2005, pB4-B5. |
| Statue of Liberty (USA) 
|
> $200 million restoration project (1986),
largely necessitated due to corrosion damage, with significant internal galvanic corrosion
damage. |
Baboian, R. et al: "The Statue of Liberty Restauration", NACE
International, Houston, 1990. |
Stray Current Corrosion
(USA) |
5% of total corrosion costs
in USA, with most costs arising from electrified DC transit system operations. |
"Electrolytic Corrosion in DC Powered Transit
Systems," IIT Research Institute, Chicago, IL, 8 Reports Prepared for
the National Cooperative Transit Research and Development Program (NCTRP) Project 48-1,
TRB, National
Research Council, Washington DC, 1985-1987. |
| Switzerland |
3-5% of GNP per year, or 10-15 billion Swiss
Franks per year |
EMPA web site (dated 1999). |
| United States of America |
Approximately $300 billion
per year, for metallic corrosion (about 4% of GNP or >$1000 per person). More than one
third of costs considered avoidable using existing know-how and technology. |
Batelle news release, 1996. |
| United States of America |
$279 billion per year (direct costs),
corresponding to 3.2 percent of the U.S. GDP. Indirect costs to the user (society costs)
were conservatively estimated to be equal to the direct costs. |
www.corrosioncost.com "Corrosion
Costs and Preventive Strategies in the United States", Report by CC
Technologies Laboratories, Inc. to Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Office of
Infrastructure Research and Development, Report FHWA-RD-01-156, September 2001. |
| United States of America (historical note) |
$5 billion, in 1941 |
Akron Chemline (Newsletter of the Akron Section of the American Chemical
Society), April 1996 |
| Water Infrastructure |
link to separate
page on this site |
|
| Water and Wastewater Pipeline Failures in Australia (aging pipeline
system) |
$250 million per year.
Further cost increases expected as the already aging system gets older. |
CSIRO news release, 18 September 2001, (Ref. 2001/207). |
| more to follow ... |
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