Jan 29, 2018 | By Tess
According to a recent report published by the International Data Corporation (IDC), the Asia-Pacific (APEJ) region of the world will see a significant growth in 3D printing spending over the next five years. By 2021, it estimates that spending will reach $3.6 billion with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.4%.
The data comes from the IDC’s Worldwide Semiannual 3D Printing Spending Guide, which was updated weeks ago with a projection that global spending on 3D printing technologies will reach up to $12 billion in 2018.
The recent update situates the APEJ region amongst one of the most significant in the globe in terms of spending, in line with the United States and Western Europe. This is hardly surprising, though, as more and more 3D printing news is coming from China, Japan, South Korea, etc.
"China is the force behind APEJ growth,” said Mun Chun Lim, Market Analyst at IDC Asia/Pacific’s Imaging, Printing and Document Solutions Research. “The Chinese Government is in support of the industry and multiple 3D printing action plan and fiscal supports are seen in place. As results, it boosted the 3D printing uses and spending in the country with continuous interest and rising maturity.”
Let’s look at the spending growth breakdown for the region, which falls into 3D printing services, materials, hardware, and software.
According to the IDC report, 3D printing services—which include consulting, systems integration, and on-demand printing services—and 3D printing materials spending will account for nearly 45% of the region’s total spending over the five-year forecast period. Software, on the other hand, will see a slower growth with a CAGR rate of 26.9%.
In terms of applications, discrete manufacturing (that is to say the production of finished components for the automotive and aircraft industries, among others) will be the most significant with nearly $1.1 billion in spending in 2018 alone. The IDC also believes that this dominance will continue throughout the forecast period, with spending increasing to $1.7 billion by 2021. The education and healthcare industries will follow discrete manufacturing for spending.
“Manufacturers in APEJ have started to evaluate and implement additive manufacturing. Coupled with government push in advanced manufacturing, discrete manufacturing industry will continue to dominate majority of the spending in the region,” added Lim. “Education remains to be the focus in majority of the countries across the region while healthcare industry is gaining traction with rising demand of customized medical solutions and increasing spending power among patients in the region.”
Within the realm of discrete manufacturing, prototyping, molding, and end-part manufacturing will account for roughly 68% of total spending in 2018. While learning and research activities will be the dominant uses for 3D printing in the education sector. APEJ’s medical sector will predominantly use 3D printing for producing dental objects, surgical models, and medical support parts.
Notably, the industries set to experience the fastest growth in 3D printing spending over the next five years are the telecommunications industry (with a 50.2% CAGR) and resource industries (44% CAGR).
Lim commented on this growth, saying: “As we are gearing towards industry 4.0 era, 3D printing is poised to transform the manufacturing process and how things are made. The advent of 3D printing opens up endless possibilities and unleashing disruptive power in global supply chain. With on-going development, we will see penetration of 3D printing in other industries, with more innovative use cases developed.”
Posted in 3D Printer
Maybe you also like:
- Carbon announces $200M in Series D funding to scale 3D printing for manufacturing
- Twin cold spray robots allow GE to 3D print metal parts on unprecedented scale
- Hong Kong based Tomato 3D printer hopes to impress with its full color CMYK mixing system
- UNIZ to debut 5 new 3D printers with UDP technology, incl. fastest SLA printer ever
- Desktop Metal ships first Studio System metal 3D printers to Google’s ATAP group
- $5K Vitae Industries AutoCompounder can 3D print personalized drugs in 10 minutes
- Kickstarter for MakeX's Migo 3D printer, with a new 'printing while walking' feature, has 7 days left
- San Draw rolls out FAM silicone 3D printer upgrades and improved 3D printed silicone airway
- FabRx transforms Magic Candy Factory 3D printer into $10,500 personalized medicine maker for children
- DWS Systems presents new 'XCELL' SLA 3D printer with built-in washing and UV curing modules
- MIT engineers develop 10x faster desktop FDM 3D printer
- Teknodizayn showcases injection molding inspired LOOP 3D printer with continuous printing capabilities
3Ders.org provides the latest news about 3D printing technology and 3D printers. We are now seven years old and have around 1.5 million unique visitors per month.
