Metal AM Entering Pivotal Year as Revenues from Metal Powders and AM Systems Top $950M

The latest edition of SmarTech Publishing’s industry-leading metal AM market research report Additive Manufacturing with Metal Powders 2017 reveals that the primary market for metal additive manufacturing, encompassing metal additive manufacturing (AM) systems and metal powder materials, exceeded $950M in 2016. Over the next decade, SmarTech Publishing’s proprietary market models show the metal AM market will grow to over $6.6B by 2026. The report is based on SmarTech’s ongoing dedicated research to the metal additive manufacturing market.

The metal additive manufacturing market remains one of the strongest growth areas of the broader 3D printing industry, and is entering a pivotal year in its evolution in which a number of developments are expected to determine whether or not various metal AM technologies will deliver on expected potential. Incumbent processes and vendors who have enjoyed numerous years of strong growth with little competitive pressure now face a significantly different market structure in 2017, characterized by a drive towards real manufacturing implementation and digital manufacturing business model realization.

This new report –the third edition of SmarTech Publishing’s industry-leading metal AM market research report –identifies key change factors and resulting growth opportunities in metal additive manufacturing in metal powder materials and alloys, applications, and technology. Through nearly 200 pages of analysis and market data, the latest ten year forecast outlooks for metal AM are presented, and include key market metrics such as:

Metal powder shipments by mass across eight leading alloy families, and resulting revenue opportunities
Hardware unit sales and install base estimates by metal AM technology subgroup (laser powder bed fusion, electron beam powder bed fusion, powder directed energy deposition, metal binder jetting)
Revenue opportunities for sale of metal powders for additive manufacturing within specific end user markets

The report also conducts an analysis of individual metal AM technologies and markets, including market share estimates of leading hardware vendors. Competitive profiling and market share analysis of leading metal powder producers active in the additive manufacturing industry are assessed, along with new developmental metal additive manufacturing processes expected to come to market in 2017 or 2018 and their impact on existing solutions.

This report seeks to lay out a clear market trajectory based on the latest industry events and technological developments in metal AM for stakeholders in the industry ranging from machine manufacturers, to metal powder suppliers, to machine tool providers interested in additive manufacturing, to investors and major end users interested in potential acquisitions in the space.

From the Metal AM Report:

Competitive landscapes are shifting at record pace in the market, with notable acquisitions from GE and market entries by major machine tool manufacturers and metal powder suppliers happening throughout 2016. General Electric’s own internal consumption of additive manufacturing machines, expected to be around 1,000 total systems over the next decade, represents as much as 4 percent of the total market sales for metal AM units in a given year during the forecast period.
Major metal powder suppliers are beginning to make investments in order to gain key foothold in the future market for powders used in additive manufacturing. These suppliers are ramping up their influence in the market as more end users begin serial manufacturing applications in AM, and as a result hold the potential to weaken the business models of metal AM machine OEMs relying on redistribution of metal powders to customers as an additional revenue stream.
Market growth in 2016 was spread evenly across geographic regions of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of World, with Europe remaining the largest market for metal AM hardware and materials. In 2016, North America and Europe combined to account for just under 70 percent of the total primary metal AM market for metal powders and metal AM technology.