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, 21 June 2019 - Revenues from desktop monitors sold through distributors in West Europe (WE) continued to grow in early Q2 2019 (April and May) by +12% year-on-year after an already strong first quarter. Larger monitors, with screens above 30", made a significant contribution, according to the latest data published by CONTEXT, the technology market intelligence company.

In the first two months of the second quarter, combined sales of business- and consumer-targeted monitors were up by +9% year-on-year and sales of large monitors (> 30") grew by +57%. In Q1, the business segment was stronger but, in early Q2, WE distributors saw a +12% increase in unit sales and revenues from consumer monitors while sales of business monitors increased more slowly, by only +7% year-on-year. However, thanks to increased sales of large and premium models, the revenues generated grew more quickly and were up by +12% year-on-year.

   Desktop monitors, screen size > 30": % share of revenues and unit sales, WE distribution

   Desktop monitors, screen size > 30": revenue share by target customer, WE distribution

The average selling price (ASP) of large monitors exceeds €350 and, while prices of consumer models continue to decline, the ASP of business models has been growing since Q3 2018, reaching €550 in early Q2 2019.This trend has been most noticeable for vendors such as Dell and LG who have recently seen sales of more expensive 34" (ASP > €450) and 49" (ASP > €900) pick up. Other vendors, including Samsung, Philips and HP, have also witnessed increased demand for their larger business-oriented monitors.

Amongst consumers, 31.5" models dominate and sales continue to grow due to their relatively affordable price (€240). However, WE distributors are seeing increasing interest in 43" and even 49" consumer models, particularly in the retail and SMB channels, as these have lower prices than their business equivalents.

     Desktop monitors, screen size > 30": ASP by target customer, 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, 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

London, 20 May 2019 – Revenues from materials for Industrial/Professional* 3D printers have surged by $4.6B over the past five years with 29.9% year-on-year growth in 2018 alone, according to new research from CONTEXT. The market looks set to better the 2013–2018 five-year CAGR of 25.98% and is on track to amass another $15B in the next five years.

Although still a small part of the $12T manufacturing industry, the market for materials for use in 3D printing — also known as additive manufacturing (AM) — has grown strongly as the number of 3D printers installed has expanded.

From 2014 to 2018, 80.6% of global revenues for materials used in Industrial/Professional 3D printers came from polymers (plastics), while metals accounted for 13.5%. However, the latter’s share grew to 17.9% in 2018 while polymers’ dipped to 78.8%, highlighting the growing momentum of metal-based AM.

Chart 1: Five-year global Industrial/Professional materials utilisation revenues by material and process

Beyond prototyping

The AM market, like the larger general manufacturing market, is made up of sub-markets that are often aligned with unique technologies and material properties. New research, based on comprehensive and detailed analysis of what professional AM machines are used for, reveals very different core usage of materials across machine types.

The outdated idea that 3D printing is still predominantly used for prototyping is based around polymer extrusion (FDM) machines. While this technology is often the most visible, and in many people’s minds accounts for the entire market, revenue from materials for these machines was behind that from materials for resin vat photopolymerisation and polymer powder-bed fusion machines during 2014–18.

Although most material extrusion machines are still used predominantly for prototyping, other core polymer 3D-printing technologies, such as vat photopolymerisation (commonly known as SLA, DLP or DLS/CLIP) and powder-bed fusion (including traditional selective-laser sintering - SLS - and HP’s MJF), are being increasingly used for low- and mid-volume production as well as for mass customisation.

Chart 2: Global Industrial/Professional five-year material utilisation revenues ($US B) by major printing process and principal use

About the AM3DP Materials Utilisation Report

CONTEXT’s new report examines the 3D-printing materials market to reveal quarter-by-quarter utilisation of materials by machine type, process, core-material, sub-material end-market, and principal use, allowing users to examine the entire global market as well as individual processes and end markets.

The report breaks major material types for each process into key subgroups. For polymer extrusion these are ABS, ASA, FDM nylon, PLA, ULTEM; for vat photopolymerisation they are casting resin, dental resin and professional resin; and for powder-bed fusion the groupings cover materials such as PA11, PA12, PA–glass beads, PEEK, and PEKK. For AM with metals, sub-materials include aluminium, cobalt -chrome, nickel alloys, precious metals, steels and titanium; and the usage of other materials – wax, ceramics, sand, biological materials, and many more – is also examined.

The CONTEXT report is unique – not only in its level of detail and frequency, but also in its mapping of machine shipment installed base to material utilisation by key uses and end markets.

* Industrial/Professional machines in this context refers to machines selling for over $5,000