Metal system sales by industry 2020 and 2025
Positive outlook as double-digit growth is expected across all industries
In comparison to the previous year, the sale revenue of system suppliers has seen in decline for the major industries of metal Additive Manufacturing. In 2019, the suppliers reported for the combined medical and dental industry revenues of EUR 210 million. In 2020, medical and dental were issuing purchases for EUR 188 million. These sectors are usually believed to be quite resistant to economic fallouts. However, the pandemic caused a shift of priorities in the health sector leading to lower capacity for elective surgeries or availability of medical services in general, and, hence, less need for metal AM implants and instruments. In any case, medical and dental revenues are expected to achieve a steady growth at a CAGR of 17.5 % and 18.5 %, respectively, for the coming 5 years.
The largest sector in 2020 in terms of system sales revenue is the space industry. A reported revenue of EUR 173 million is expected to grow to EUR 364 million in 2025. Pushed by major investments from players in AMER region, the system vendors were able to close sales projects especially for large and dedicated machinery able to build complete rocket fuel nozzles and the like. Additionally, service bureaus continue to invest into new and highly productive machines, as they see a rising demand in the future in part manufacturing services into this field.
Surprisingly, in 2025, the system suppliers predict that the most revenue from metal AM systems will be generated from the group of universities and research institutions. Today at EUR 78 million, the suppliers see strong demand and forecast sales of EUR 418 million in 2025, which equals a remarkable annual growth of 39.8 %. Additive Manufacturing has become a large field of research with dedicated research programs and strong funding all over the world. New topics such as smart materials, multi-material approaches, 4D printing and many more, will nurture the interest in the technology and need for new equipment.
While system sales revenue in space exceeds all other industries today, the suppliers forecast larger growth in other areas. Taking a share of 20 % of the revenue in 2020, space is projected to decrease to 13 % of the annual sales volume in 2025. Also, the medical industry, one of the leading sectors over the past decade, will drop in market share as other industries are expected to soar.
The OEMs, tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers of the automotive industry are predicted to heavily invest into metal AM over the coming years. With an average annual growth of 35 %, the industry will arrive at system sale revenue of EUR 282 million in 2025, making up for 10 % of the total market. Several large automotive OEMs have announced the end of the combustion engine for the use in vehicles. They will focus on electric drive trains and thus shift the production steadily to the new designs and models. This will create opportunity for metal AM as whole vehicle systems are reworked and new designs are introduced.
The system suppliers also expect strong growth in the industry of mechanical engineering, automation and robotics and predict that 11 % of all system acquisitions in 2025 go into this segment. Companies in the sector of mechanical engineering have adopted metal AM only slowly in the past years and mainly bought external machine capacity to learn and better understand the technology. The gained experience enables these companies now to use the knowledge for new developments and use metal AM for components in end products, but also to support the production and assembly process.