Future of inkjet is bright according to Smithers Pira report

The global market for inkjet printing will grow at a rate of 9.4% year-on-year and will be worth $109bn in 2023 according to ‘The Future of Inkjet Printing to 2023’, a new market report from Smithers Pira. This contrasts with the general outlook for the print industry where growth is occurring at 0.8% annually.

The report provides data (by value and volume) and analysis across 11 end-use applications, over 30 national markets and five print equipment types. It states that in 2018 the total value of inkjet printing in graphics and packaging applications will reach $69.6bn, with a total print volume equivalent to 749bn A4 prints. This volume will consume 103,700 tonnes of ink, with the end-users spending $8.7bn, while the market for new inkjet equipment will be $3.6bn. The report’s author, Dr Sean Smyth - a print consultant at Smithers Pira - said: “The economics and reliability of inkjet are consistently improving as a result of heavy investment in printing heads, machinery, inks and drying systems, associated software and, increasingly, substrates. There is strong growth across most of these disparate activities because the non-impact process is very flexible and capable of printing at high-quality and speed, making it suitable to print many products, while the cost position is becoming more economic against most analogue printing alternatives. "Inkjet is winning market share from analogue processes as well as opening up new applications, with new routes to market and workflows developing. In packaging, changing retail supply chains along with strong growth in e-commerce - now including mobile-enabled ‘m-commerce’ - are pushing further adoption of inkjet as brands and retailers look to communicate with end users in new ways. Equipment manufacturers and converters are exploring new functions enabled by versioning and personalisation on packs as packaging is used in new ways to engage with consumers.” According to Smithers Pira, while advertising will continue to be the largest end-use application across 2018-2023, the most rapid growth will come from wider use of inkjet in packaging, books and commercial printing. Beyond these core applications developers are exploring inkjet to open new market applications, such as 3D printing, automotive and transport printing, biomedical printing, ceramics printing, decor and laminate printing, direct-to-shape printing, glass printing, printed electronics and textile printing. Many of these opportunities will require integrating the inkjet process with robotics aligning with the wider Industry 4.0 trend.