Data acquisition
Thorough cover of metal AM market
Basis for the AMPOWER Report 2020 Metal are over 250 personal interviews as well as secondary research from available sources. The personal interviews were conducted directly by AMPOWER staff. The respondents were typically the respective Additive Manufacturing managers or directors with good insight into the technological as well as economical company figures.
A highly dynamic and growing industry is difficult to cover exhaustively. However, the system suppliers that contributed direct input for the AMPOWER Report 2020 represent 91.9 % of the worldwide installed base of metal Additive Manufacturing systems. Secondary sources such as indirect data sources, press releases, financial reports, etc. were used to provide coverage of all installed machines. The buyers, or users, that contributed direct input for the report represent 13.0 % of the worldwide installed base of metal Additive Manufacturing systems.
Period of interest
Past calendar year and forecast of 5 years
The market data of the AMPOWER Report 2020 is based on data acquisition performed early in the year 2020. Time of interest is the calendar year of 2019 as well as the forecast period until 2024. As with all forecasts, data for the period until 2024 are based on estimates, business plans and projections regarding activities in Additive Manufacturing by the respective respondent’s company. AMPOWER did not add any correction factors that might account for changes due to past, current or expected geopolitical events.
Respondents
Respondents reflect state of industry
More than half of all respondents of the supply chain, i.e. system, material or service suppliers, are associated to companies with revenue below EUR 10 million. Many of the small and micro companies in the supplier group are startups. The market valuation of the entity might far exceed the perceived company type, however, since they have not yet introduced their products into the market, the revenue is low. Out of the supplier group, more than 50 % of the material suppliers are from very large companies.
The largest share of buyer or user respondents are very large companies with a revenue of above EUR 1 billion, combined by all affiliated companies. Metal AM is mainly a B2B market, where hardly any components are sold directly to a private customer. Many large companies use metal AM to produce components for larger machines, systems or products, that provide a functional and ultimately cost benefit.
The share of large companies also well reflects the capital-intensive metal Additive Manufacturing technology. A full process chains is required for successful in-house production, which not only includes the printer system, but also periphery for post processing and finishing as well as engineering capacity.
The majority of respondents of the AMPOWER Report 2020 are from EMEA region, especially the EU, with a share of 61 %. As EMEA is currently the largest market for metal Additive Manufacturing, this reflects the current state of the industry.
The respondents of the Americas (AMER) and the Asia Pacific region (APAC), consisting of East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, account for 19 % and 20 %, respectively.
The entirety of respondents come from 33 different countries.
Analysis
Market report model
The AMPOWER Report 2020 Metal is based on a methodology developed in 2018 and refined in 2019. It takes into account the specific characteristics of metal Additive Manufacturing and its B2B market. Basis for the model is the full coverage of the system supplier market and its installed base of metal Additive Manufacturing machines. The model will be continually optimized and improved for future reports.
The report has a worldwide region of interest. To display the regional developments in the AM market, the data is split into three regions: AMER, APAC and EMEA.
For the second edition of the report, AMPOWER is thankful to have again received highly valuable contributions from local AM experts to provide deep insight and further facilitate contact to major players.
Market player categorization
Suppliers and buyers
The AMPOWER Report categorizes the market players into groups of suppliers and buyers. The supplier group consists of system, material and service suppliers. For the system suppliers, the report data considers machine sales as well as provided services, such as maintenance and application development. Sold feedstock falls into the group of material suppliers.
The group of service suppliers accounts for entities that provide AM production services to a range of customers from different verticals. Secondary goods and services are excluded from the service supplier group. This includes services, such as general machining or post processing of AM parts, sales of periphery, e.g. shot blasting cabinets, as well as software, such as CAD or preprocessing tools.
The group of buyers are AM users that purchase machines, feedstock or manufacturing services from suppliers in order to produce and provide goods for their customers. These buyers are companies that are known users today or announced their activity in AM. Companies that will become buyers in the future are covered through projections made for yet unknown entities and volumes. Industry specific tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers that are primarily or only deliver goods into a single vertical are also categorized as users.
Technology categorization
Groups of metal AM technologies
The AMPOWER Report clusters the metal Additive Manufacturing technologies into the groups of Powder Bed Fusion (PBF), Direct Energy Deposition (DED), Metal FDM, Binder Jetting Technology (BJT) and Others.
The system sales for Metal FDM do only track industrial-grade machines and neglect low-cost 3D filament printers.
The group of Others includes technologies, such as Coldspray or Friction Welding, that have limited market volume today.
The uncertainty in market predictions is generally higher for technologies that are in an early market stage with small numbers of overall installed systems or in a fast-growing phase. Applications and solutions have to be developed by a yet unknown user group with unknown demand.
Influence of COVID-19 pandemic
High uncertainty for future outlook
The COVID-19 pandemic had significant impact on business life around the world. The datasets of the AMPOWER Report 2020 were gathered before the global economy was hit by the pandemic during the first quarter of 2020. At this time, the full consequences of the pandemic were not yet foreseen by many of the survey respondents.
Any future predictions on market development currently carry high uncertainty due to potential for unknown permanent changes due to long-lasting effects on the global economy from the pandemic. The market predictions and expectations for the 5-year outlook of 2024 do not include any factors for compensation or correction of the pandemic consequences.
Please also refer to the section for an impact analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic here.
