Research Updates

London, 20 August 2019 – The start of Q3 2019 saw PC sales continue to follow the pattern that has characterised the past few quarters, with healthy demand from commercial buyers offsetting weaker consumer sales, according to the latest data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company.

Volume sales of PCs through Western Europe’s largest distributors were up by +8% year-on-year in July 2019, driven by a +15% growth in the commercial sector as businesses continued to invest in new hardware in preparation for the end of Windows 7 support early next year. Notebook sales were up by +11% and desktops by +25%. Workstation volumes also grew: stationary systems by +18% and mobile machines by +25%.

On the other hand, sales of consumer PCs remained weak, falling by -2% in July 2019 when compared to last year. The decline was driven by a -3% drop in sales of notebooks. While there was growth in some consumer areas, including desktops, ultra-slim portables and Chromebooks, the volume bases in these parts of the market were too small to reverse the negative trend.

Gaps in the supply of Intel processors continued to impact PC sales, although most vendors say the situation is improving. It is expected that commercial demand will remain strong throughout the second half of 2019 as migration to Windows 10 continues. While a range of promotional activities during the upcoming back-to-school and Black Friday periods are likely to lead to a temporary improvement in the consumer growth trend, overall demand is expected to remain soft.

                         Commercial PC volumes: WE distribution

                               Consumer PC volumes: WE distribution

London, 22 October 2019 – 12% of PCs sold by Western Europe’s largest distributors in Q3 2019 were based on processors from AMD, according to the latest distribution data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company. The brand’s share was up from 7% at the same time last year, with the rise in AMD-based PCs coupled to a decline in Intel-powered machines.

During this period, AMD processors featured in a higher proportion of consumer PCs than commercial systems: they were the basis of 18% of consumer-targeted PCs sold through the region’s distributors compared to 8% of business-targeted PCs. However, AMD share was up year-on-year and on the previous quarter in both segments: consumer PCs saw a 7 percentage-point increase on last year and a 1 point rise on Q2 2019, while, in commercial PCs, AMD share increased by 5 percentage points year-on-year and by 1 point on the previous quarter.

Over the past few quarters, Intel chip supply constraints have led to a number of vendors increasing their focus on AMD offerings. The two main vendors with commercial AMD portfolios, HP and Lenovo, both posted strong AMD PC growth in Q3 2019. The manufacturers with the largest consumer AMD PC presence in the distribution channel – HP, Lenovo, Asus and Acer – also registered a healthy rise in volumes.

Looking at the top five Western European markets, AMD share was highest in Italy where 16% of PCs sold through the country’s largest distributors in Q3 2019 featured the processor. The UK and Spain followed (AMD share was 13% in both countries), then Germany (11%) and France (9%).

                                PC processor vendor mix: WE distribution

                                       AMD PC share: WE distribution

London, 23 August 2019 – Sales of large interactive display solutions in Western Europe (WE) grew by almost 30% year-on-year in July 2019. The recent launch of new high-end models will only bring more attention to this category, according to the latest data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company.

Sales of large-format displays (LFDs) were up by +19% year-on-year in July 2019, and the picture is even better if focusing solely on touchscreen LFDs. This type of interactive display accounted for over 18% of LFD volumes and almost 30% of revenues, as well as seeing +29% unit growth a +16% increase in revenues.

LFDs: Revenue Y/Y growth (excl. Microsoft Surface Hub), WE distribution

The significant growth in sales by WE distributors reflects businesses looking to increase employees’ agility, collaboration and productivity. But the third quarter is also usually boosted by the educational market which is happy to invest in interactive classroom solutions. The LFD touchscreens that saw the most notable growth this month were 65-inch and 75-inch displays (up by +57% and +43% year-on-year, respectively) and those with 4K/UHD resolution (77% of interactive displays sold in July had high resolution). Growing demand for higher-resolution screens has been driven by falling prices which are now almost similar to those for Full-HD displays.

The long-awaited launch of the 50.5-inch Microsoft Surface Hub 2S this quarter will also affect sales of this category. However, it will also fuel competition between vendors as, despite its many useful functionalities, the Surface Hub is one of the smallest and most expensive of the latest crop of LFDs. New collaborative displays that were made available through WE distributors in July included larger screens (75 or even 86 inch) with 4K resolution from vendors well-known in the niche, such as Promethean, and others, such as ViewSonic and Dell.

The increase in demand for interactive solutions from a broad spectrum of businesses in Europe is expected to continue, particularly in the biggest WE markets such as the UK, Germany and France. In Italy, the digitalising of work and educational spaces, which has recently been a particular priority, is supporting sales not only of interactive displays but also in other categories such as desktop monitors.

Interactive displays: price by resolution (55", 65", 75"), WE distribution

London, 10 October 2019 – Total distribution sales of desktop monitors in West Europe (WE) were down in August, mainly as a result of weak sales to business channels. However, sales to retail and consumer etail were up, according to data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company.

Overall sales of desktop monitors through WE distributors grew by +4% year-on-year in early Q3 (July and August) but this figure hides a strong uptick (+13%) in July that was followed by a decline of -2% in August as both business- and consumer-targeted models performed poorly and sales to business channels sales declined by -6%. The only bright spot in the data for the month is that sales through consumer channels (retail and etail) continued to grow and were up by +4% year-on-year.

     Desktop monitors: year-on-year change in sales by channel, WE distribution

The latest results show that the growing number of models with larger or curved screens targeted at creative professionals and gamers are also attracting consumers and accelerating monitor refreshes and purchases. In August alone, sales of gaming models and those with curved screens grew by over 50% year-on-year and most of these were sold to consumer channels (70% to consumer etail). Other models enjoying increased interest were those with refresh rates of 100Hz and above: 144Hz monitors accounted for 13% sales to consumer channels in the month – a year-on-year increase of +75%.

Desktop monitors: Unit sales to consumer channels - key categories, WE distribution

Monitors aimed at business users and priced between €186 and €197 also drove growth in consumer channels. These models are not the cheapest available to businesses, so the results confirm that consumers are keen to invest in high-spec monitors that are not only attractive for gamers and creatives but also for home offices.

Business-targeted monitors: ASP by channel, WE distribution

Historically, Q4 is the strongest quarter for consumer sales, particularly those of premium monitors. Therefore, we should see even more sales through consumer channels in the months leading up to the Christmas season.

*Q3: includes July and August.
**Gaming: displays designed for gamers and described by vendor as such.

London, 25 February 2019 - Sales of printer hardware through distributors in Western Europe (WE) were flat at -0.1% year-on-year in Q4 2018, mainly driven by the negative performance registered in December, which was a short month due to the Christmas holidays, according to the latest distribution data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company.

Laser devices reversed the trend seen earlier in the year by outperforming inkjet devices, and sales of consumer-targeted devices increased by +8.5%. Consumer printers steadily increased their market share and drove overall imaging growth in 2018.

Sales of multifunction printers (MFPs) were up by +2.2% year-on-year with continued growth for both laser and inkjet MFPs (sales were up by +4.1% and +1.7%, respectively). However, this was offset by the negative performance of single-function printers (SFPs) of which sales were down by -10.1% (-20.6% for inkjet SFPs and -7.2% for laser SFPs). This pattern confirms that the shift from single- to multifunction devices is continuing and is likely to be further consolidated going forward, particularly for lower spec models for which there is not a high demand from resellers, according to an UK Distributor (which has also informed that they are frequently asked if they can secure high volume, low spec, low price for export).

Sales of inkjet MFPs were better than during the same period in 2017. Monochrome and A3 MFPs were still driving inkjet growth with sales +42.2% and +13.8% higher than the previous year. Entry-level ranges (priced up to €400) continued to lead sales of consumer-targeted MFPs, accounting for 99.8% of units and generating €91 million. Sales in the higher price bands of this range also grew significantly, up by +38.8% for printers costing €150–200, +68.1% for those costing €200–300 and +40.7% for devices priced at €300–400. Sales of mid-level printers saw a double-digit increase in the €500–600 price band, which grew by +49.7% year-on-year.

Laser MFP volume sales were up by +4.1% in Q4 2018 driven by the exceptional performance of consumer-targeted devices (sales up by +111.6%), primarily because the ASP is continuing to decrease. The business-targeted models, which account for 72.1% of laser MFP sales and 89.4% of revenue, registered a sales drop of -13.2%, mainly because the ASP is continuing to increase, and which suggests businesses are replacing entry-level business-targeted models with mid and high-level consumer-targeted devices.

2018 saw the print industry continue to face the stark realities of digital disruption, however, sales of multifunction printers (MFPs) were up by +1.2% year-on-year in 2018 with continued growth for both laser and inkjet MFPs in 2018 (sales were up by +3% and +0.9%, respectively), which does not show a noticeable shift in sales towards the Managed Print Services (MPS). Nevertheless, according to the distribution channel, more and more resellers are looking at complimenting their offering by having an MPS proposition (partnering with vendors directly or indirectly, or through MPS dealers to support their business). However, vendors still need to expand their security assessment and monitoring services, along with partnering with traditional IT security providers, particularly in the area of threat intelligence to ensure that print security is treated with the same priority as the rest of the IT infrastructure. Print and digital convergence will drive increased demand for integrated document workflow in 2019, and despite the rapid adoption of digital and mobile technologies, many businesses remain reliant on print to some extent.

           Graph 1: Imaging unit sales and Y/Y change by category – WE distribution

Imaging sales and revenues grew in a few WE countries in Q4 2018, particularly in the United Kingdom which registered a double-digit increase in sales spread across nearly all categories (inkjet SFPs were the exception) and driven by the vendors which account for 83.2% of the British market: HP (sales up +68.3% year-on-year), Kyocera (+44.8%), Brother (+35.3%), Xerox (+24.6%), Lexmark (+18.6%) and Canon (+14.8%). Italy was one of the only other countries that saw growth in nearly every category (inkjet SFPs were again the exception) and there were strong performances from Samsung which changed its go to market strategy from resellers to distributors (sales up +109% year-on-year), Canon (+9.6%), Xerox (+7.7%) and HP (+7.4%), which share over 68.3% of the country’s printer market. 

But it was Belgium that registered the highest growth over this period – in terms of both units sold (up +32.7% year-on-year) and revenue (+29.1%) – with the increase driven by the three companies that dominate the country’s printer market and together hold a share of over 74%: Epson (sales up +140.6%), Samsung (+107.4%) and HP (+10.6%).

Norway saw revenue increase by +11.9% even though volumes were down by -11.5% year-on-year. This can be attributed to the increased number of sales in the mid- and high-level ranges (€800–900, €900–1000, €1200–1300, €1900–2100 and €2600–3100 price bands), which registered a three-digit increase overall (+115.9%).

Graph 2:  Y/Y change in imaging units sold through distributors by country – Top 5 WE countries 

Table 1:  Y/Y change in imaging units sold and revenue (Q4 2018) – WE distribution 

London, 17 May 2019 - Printer markets have become increasingly healthy over the recent years and are currently robust, although, as always, they remain competitive. However, sales of printer hardware through distributors in West Europe (WE) were sharply down by -4.2% year-on-year in Q1 2019, according to the latest distribution data published by CONTEXT, the technology market intelligence company. This is not a surprise: the first quarter is, historically, the weakest of the year – and it is usually followed by a weak second quarter.

Sales of multifunction printers (MFPs) were down by -1.7% year-on-year: even though laser MFPs saw a sharp growth of +4.6%, this was offset by the negative performance (-3.4%) of inkjet MFPs which account for almost 78% of sales in WE.

Sales of single-function printers (SFPs) registered a strong decline (-13.6%) and contributed to the overall negative performance in Q1 2019. The ongoing shift from single- to multifunction devices is likely to be further consolidated with distributors reporting that reseller demand for SFPs, particularly lower-spec models, is low.

Laser MFPs saw growth of +4.6% in Q1 2019, driven by the exceptional performance of consumer-targeted devices (sales up by +80%), especially monochrome printers (sales up by +113.1%), which is primarily due to falling ASPs as distributors use promotions and discounts to clear stock and get ready for the arrival of new models.

Consumer printers as a whole steadily increased their market share and drove overall imaging growth in Q1 2019, as they had done in 2018. Sales of business-targeted models, which account for 83% of laser MFP sales and 92.8% of revenue, dropped by -13.4% (leading to a fall in revenue of - 5.5%), mainly because the ASP is continuing to increase. This suggests companies (small and medium businesses) are replacing entry-level business-targeted models with mid- and high-level consumer- targeted devices.

Inkjet MFPs reversed the positive trend seen in 2018 with volume sales declining by -3.4% in Q1 2019. However, revenues were up by +2.3%, helped by increased sales in mid- and high-price ranges and driven by sales of monochrome and A3 devices, which saw revenue growth of +60% and +20.7% on the previous year. It is interesting to note the exceptional growth of A3 printer sales in the consumer segment (+145.4%) – another factor suggesting that SMBs are buying consumer inkjet devices with greater functionality to fulfil their commercial needs.

          Imaging unit sales and Y/Y change by category – WE distribution

Imaging sales and revenues declined in almost all WE countries in Q1 2019. Italy was the only top 5 WE country which continued to register a positive year-on-year performance in terms of both units and revenues. The increase there was driven by strong consumer sales from HP (sales up by +62%), Brother (+38%), Samsung (+15.6%) and Ricoh (+15.5%), which share 69.9% of the country’s printer market.

Spain also saw growth of both units and revenues in Q1 2019, reversing the negative trend of 2018.This positive performance was driven by mid-range and high-range consumer devices, and by brands such as Kyocera (sales up by +149.3%) and Epson (+11%), even though these have a combined market share of only just over 22%.

In the United Kingdom, where consumer confidence is low amidst Brexit-related uncertainty, last year’s positive trend was reversed and sales (units and revenues) declined in Q1 2019. There were falls in both consumer and business segments, and significant drops for brands such as Ricoh (year-on-year sales down by -90.5%), OKI (-36.8%), Epson (-34.3%), Lexmark (-9.9%), Canon (-9.1%), Xerox (-4.9%) and Brother (-3.5%), although other companies, which share 59.4% of the country’s printer market, saw smaller declines.

Germany and France continued to register negative year-on-year changes in volume sales and revenues, with strong falls in both consumer and business segments. This had an effect on all the brands which share over 94% of the printer market in these countries: Ricoh saw volume sales decrease (by -39.8%), as did Samsung (-33%), OKI (-31.4%), Kyocera (-16.7%), Epson (-15.4%), HP (-12.7%), Lexmark (-8%), Brother (-5.8%) and Canon (-3.7%).

     Graph - Y/Y change in imaging units sold through distributors – Top 5 WE countries

Table - Y/Y change in imaging units sold and revenue – WE distribution, Q1 2019

Looking ahead, the market is likely to see other changes alongside the ongoing shift from single-function to multifunction printers.

Managed print services (MPSs) that allow customers to transform their workplaces from paper to digital will continue to expand in 2019 as distributors and retailers use their partnerships with vendors to provide comprehensive, cloud-based MPS solutions to consolidate workplace printing. The emergence of enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) platforms offering asset management, fault detection, smart analytics and remote monitoring presents a broader opportunity for MPS providers to participate.

Over the next one or two years, we expect to see relatively fast growth in sales of production-standard inkjets, wide-format printers (both digital and inkjet), and digital toner-based devices. However, the five-specific print-market segments that are likely grow at a relatively higher rate are packaging and specialty packaging, labels and wrappers, signage, direct mail and point-of-purchase.

London, 19 September 2019 – Q2 2019 has seen the switch from client Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) to client Solid State Drives (SSDs) accelerate in the West Europe (WE) IT distribution channel with a noticeable decline in the mobile and desktop HDD segment. The latest data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company, confirms that it is the end of the era of client HDDs as the primary storage in computers.

We all knew it would happen but we were maybe expecting a slower transition: Q2 2019 saw unit sales of desktop and mobile HDDs fall by -50.9% across WE. Compared to the beginning of 2018, when the decline was around -25% and at a level the HDD manufacturers were expecting to continue going forward, the -40% drop in January to July 2019 was far greater than anticipated.

Client HDDs vs Client SSDs quarterly year-on-year unit growth

In contrast, client SSD sales have seen impressive growth since Q3 2018, increasing by almost +50% in Q4 2018 and around +30% in the first two quarters of 2019.

This rather sudden deceleration in client HDD sales has been driven by disks with lower capacities: combined sales of 500 GB and 1 TB HDDs have fallen by -60% whereas those of SSDs with capacities such as 240 GB, 480 GB, 500 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB saw combined growth of +81.1% in Q2 2019.

Lower capacity HDDs vs SSDs: year-on-year unit growth

The main explanation for the growth of the lower-capacity SSD market is that their average selling price (ASP) has dropped since Q2 2018. With the price of SSDs falling so sharply, it makes perfect sense that the client HDD segment has seen an increasing decline over the three last quarters.

Aggregated average selling price in euros for SSDs =<1TB

Top 6 european economies : 1TB client HDD vs 1TB client SSD - units and price evolution in euros

Another consequence is that entry-level desktop and notebook computers are now sold with SSDs as default primary storage components, the low price of SSDs enabling the vendor to offer a configuration at a similar price to one based on an HDD. But is it a similar configuration? Not entirely: SSD machines often have lower capacity than their HDD counterparts. However, the automatic offer of free cloud storage alongside software licenses such as Office 365 or computers means that the end user needs less local storage and this, therefore, pushes sales of client SSDs even though they remain three or four times more expensive in terms of price per gigabyte than HDDs.

London, 11 June 2019 –  Revenues from local area network (LAN) switches sold to enterprise customers through the distribution channel in West Europe (WE) were up by +7.7% in April 2019 compared to the previous year according to the latest distribution data published by CONTEXT, the technology market intelligence company.

The growth was largely driven by sales of campus LAN switches, which were up by +15.4% year-on-year over the month, increasing the product segment’s revenue share to over 58% and consolidating its lead in this group. Across WE there were growing sales of a number of product families, including Cisco’s Meraki MS series switches, HPE’s Aruba, Extreme Network’s Summit, Huawei’s S5700 and Ubiquiti Networks’ UniFiSwitch, to name but a few. The speeds of switches sold are slowly but continually moving away from the 100 megabits per second (Mbps) Ethernet standard and 1,000 Mbps switches accounted for over 88% of revenues during April 2019. There was also double-digit growth in revenues from 2,500 Mbps and 10,000 Mbps products, and increasing adoption of switches with speeds of 25,000 Mbps.

                              Enterprise LAN revenue share: WE distribution

Revenues from SMB LAN switches were up by +10.5% in April, with growing demand for products from Cisco, Lancom Systems and Extreme Networks. There was double-digit growth in revenues from 1,000 Mbps devices, while those from switches with speeds of 10,000 Mbps saw single-digit growth. 
Products with speeds of 2,500 Mbps saw strong growth, but from a smaller base in the previous year.

                           Enterprise LAN Y/Y growth April 2019: WE distribution

Revenues from data-centre switches increased by +16.3% year-on-year, with the following top 10 vendors seeing growth: Cisco, HPE, Extreme Networks and Huawei. Other vendors, including Alcatel-Lucent and D-Link, saw year-on-year growth – although this was, of course, from a smaller base. Besides the double-digit revenue growth of 10,000 Mbps products, there were significant increases in revenue from switches of this type with Ethernet speeds of 25,000 Mbps and 100,000Mbps

Polymer INDUSTRIAL 3D-printer shipments up +18% year-on-year, led by growth from HP and Carbon; metal-focused INDUSTRIAL 3D-printer shipments up +30%, led by GE and EOS.

London, 24 October 2018 – On the heels of one of the largest general manufacturing shows in the world – September’s IMTS in Chicago -- and leading into one of the world’s most prominent additive-manufacturing trade events – November’s Formnext in September -- the INDUSTRIAL 3D-printer market finds itself on a good footing with shipments during the first half of the year up +22%. Shipments of INDUSTRIAL-class 3D printers which produce plastic/polymer components were +18% higher than a year ago, while those of INDUSTRIAL metal 3D printers were up +30% year-on-year.

Polymer-based 3D printers accounted for 68% of all INDUSTRIAL printers shipped during the first half of 2018, and the ongoing rise of shipments from HP and Carbon more than took up the slack from Stratasys which, although it remains the industry leader, continued to struggle. While Q2 was fantastic for 3D Systems, the leading publicly traded company in this market, most of its growth came from shipments of DESIGN and PROFESSIONAL printers. The company began shipping new products – including the much-anticipated Figure 4 systems – in Q3, so the second half of the year is expected to be strong. While most companies focused shipments on North America and Western Europe, UnionTech remained solid largely because of its focus on China.

     Chart 1: H1 2018 Global INDUSTRIAL polymer 3D-printer shipments by company

The period continued to see even stronger interest in and growing demand for metal INDUSTRIAL 3D printers, with shipments +30% higher than a year ago. All major vendors witnessed growth with EOS and GE Additive as joint leaders by market share. While they did not ship in bulk in the first half of the year, Desktop Metal has now begun supplying their lower-priced Studio system; with a strong and growing backlog of orders, this company is expected to enter the global Top 5 before the end of the year. Having just introduced its Metal Jet technology to the world, HP will also join leaders EOS, GE Additive, SLM, 3D Systems, TRUMPF and Renishaw in the years to come. HP will enter the metals side of industrial 3D printing in a slow and methodical fashion and the full market impact is not expected to be clear before 2020. Like Desktop Metal’s first product (as well as its larger and more exciting Production System which is set to hit the market next year) HP’s Metal Jet focuses on mainstream manufacturing across all sectors, rather than just the aerospace, automotive and medical industries where metal 3D printing already thrives.

       Chart 2: H1 2018 Global INDUSTRIAL metal 3D-printer shipments by company

INDUSTRIAL-class models are not the only 3D printers on the market: many of the companies mentioned above also offer DESIGN and PROFESSIONAL printers, and there is an almost entirely different set of vendors that sell PERSONAL 3D Printers. However, INDUSTRIAL 3D-printer shipments represented 70% of total printer revenues in H1 2018. “The INDUSTRIAL class of 3D printers is currently the most closely monitored, due to its ability to disrupt the $12T global manufacturing industry,” notes Chris Connery, VP for Global Analysis at CONTEXT.

* 3D-printer segment by ASP: INDUSTRIAL ≥ $100K, DESIGN = $20K–$100K, PROFESSIONAL = $2.5K–$20K, PERSONAL ≤ $2.5K

The growing number of installed 3D printers focused on mass-production is leading to higher global utilisation of materials

London, 07 November 2019 – Only 28% of installed 3D printers costing over $5,000 fall into the INDUSTRIAL* price class, but they accounted for 56% of all material used in the last year. There are currently more than twice as many INDUSTRIAL polymer (plastics) printers than metals printers installed but, in recent years, the metals side of the market has seen greater growth in both printer shipments and materials utilisation. On a trailing- twelve-month (TTM) basis through to Q2 2019, INDUSTRIAL metal based 3D printers used 21% more material than in the previous year.

The two major trends that have driven material utilisation over recent years are: (1) the growth in the installed printer base; and (2) the increasing use of new printers for serial mass-production rather than just prototyping. 3D printing has always excelled in mass-customisation (making thousands of slightly different parts for items such as clear dental aligners or hearing aids), but its ability to produce an ever-larger number of the same good is being made use of more often. What is considered ‘mass-production’ cannot be defined in terms of specific unit volumes because it is relative to the market being described: it means something totally different for consumer electronics (where products need to be produced in their millions) than in, say, aerospace (where there is a market for only hundreds of a particular product). Each new generation of INDUSTRIAL 3D printer that has hit the market has pushed the envelope so that many printers are now able to produce not just hundreds of the same item in a reliable manner but tens – or even hundreds – of thousands. And, as more and more installed printers are able to mass-produce goods, the amount of material they require inevitably increases.

Global shipments of metals 3D printers increased by +26% in 2018. Most of these (83%) were of the INDUSTRIAL varieties that are best suited to serial mass-production (either powder bed fusion or binder jetting). The resultant combination of a growing base and increased ability to produce more goods resulted in the use of +21% more material by INDUSTRIAL metals printers over the last year.

INDUSTRIAL- class polymers printing has also seen gains over the last year with consumption up by +13% on a TTM basis. Consumption of the sub-set of polymers called thermoplastics rose by +11% – mostly thanks to the general trend toward the use of power bed fusion printers for serial production and, in particular, a growing installed base of models from HP, which saw material utilisation rise +40% over the year. Photopolymers saw a year-on-year increase in materials use of +19% thanks to the growing number of DLP-based vat photopolymerisation printers installed – including new machines from Carbon as well as Figure-4/NextDent machines from 3D Systems and Envision One printers from EnvisionTEC.

Chart 1: Global material utilisation (Millions/kg) of

INDUSTRIAL-class 3D printers

While companies are continuing to try to bring down the price of materials (which remains much higher, weight-for-weight, than that of those used in conventional manufacturing), the growing installed base means that the revenues they generate is still rising. Revenues from materials for INDUSTRIAL metals-focused additive manufacturing machines were up +20% on a TTM basis, and those from polymers for INDUSTRIAL printing up by +12%.

Chart 2: Revenues ($ billions) from INDUSTRIAL* 3D printer materials