Global industrial printer shipments decline by 47% in Q2 – IDC

Asia Pacific does relatively better in direct-to-garment printers

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Global industrial printer shipments decline by 47% in Q2 – IDC
Lockdown disrupts supply chain Photo: Pxhere

IDC’s new Worldwide Quarterly Industrial Printer Tracker shows that the Covid-19 crisis significantly impacted industrial printer shipments worldwide in the second quarter of 2020. The industrial printer market, comprised of the large format, packaging and label, direct-to shape, direct-to-garment, and industrial textile printer segments, saw worldwide shipments decline 46.8% year over year in the second quarter.

“With much of the world still in shutdown or just starting to come out of shutdown at the end of the second quarter, no segment or region was spared,” said Tim Greene, research director, Hardcopy Peripherals at IDC. “While our research indicates many global manufacturers are rethinking supply chains to meet resilience and sustainability goals, those are longer-term initiatives. Shipments and hardware revenue across the large format and industrial printer market have declined due to near-term challenges such as government shutdowns and capital budget cuts.”

Regional highlights

The Asia Pacific region showed the start of a recovery in the second quarter. There was some growth in shipments compared to the first quarter in the direct-to-shape, industrial textile, large format, and label and packaging segments.
However, in North America, shipments declined by over 20% in Q2, while shipments in Europe decreased by almost 42% compared to the first quarter.

Direct-to-garment printer shipments decline 20% in Q2

According to IDC, shipments in the direct-to-garment segment declined just over 20% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter. In comparison, shipments in the direct-to-shape segment declined by over 26% in the second compared to the first quarter.

Industrial textile printer shipments contracted just 7% compared to the first quarter, with growth in the Asia Pacific region offsetting declines in other regions. Label and packaging unit shipments declined by 12.5% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter.

Large format printer shipments declined almost 25% worldwide in the second quarter compared to first.

Market expected to stabilize in H2

Looking ahead, IDC expects both units and shipment value will stabilize in the second half of 2020 as the various geographic regions go through their phases of recovery. The year 2021 is still expected to be a recovery year as IDC anticipates economic recovery and supply chain digitization to drive investments in more flexible manufacturing technologies such as industrial printing solutions.

In 2024, we are looking at full recovery and growth-led investment in Indian printing

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. It created the category of privately owned B2B print magazines in the country. And by its diversification in packaging, (Packaging South Asia), food processing and packaging (IndiFoodBev) and health and medical supply chain and packaging (HealthTekPak), and its community activities in training, research, and conferences (Ipp Services, Training and Research) the organization continues to create platforms that demonstrate the need for quality information, data, technology insights and events.

India is a large and tough terrain and while its book publishing and commercial printing industry have recovered and are increasingly embracing digital print, the Indian newspaper industry continues to recover its credibility and circulation. The signage industry is also recovering and new technologies and audiences such as digital 3D additive printing, digital textiles, and industrial printing are coming onto our pages. Diversification is a fact of life for our readers and like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

India is one of the fastest growing economies in nominal and real terms – in a region poised for the highest change in year to year expenditure in printing equipment and consumables. Our 2024 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock – to emphasize your visibility and relevance to your customers and turn potential markets into conversations.

– Naresh Khanna

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