Metal Additive Manufacturing market size valued at EUR 2.0 billion in 2020

Market size

What is the metal Additive Manufacturing market size?

Additive Manufacturing experiences massive growth and is considered to be one of the key technologies on the path of digitalization and industry 4.0. The ability of manufacturing parts directly from a CAD file is creating high expectations in the market. Nevertheless, the metal Additive Manufacturing market size is still a niche compared to other manufacturing technologies. Currently, the market is valued at about EUR 2.03 billion with a projected growth of CAGR 29.2%.

What you will find in this report section

Metal market size and growth 2020 and 2025
Metal market growth 2020 and 2025 – supplier vs. buyer
Metal AM installed base 2020 and 2025 - supplier vs. buyer
Market comparison additive vs. conventional

Metal market size and growth 2020 and 2025

Metal Additive Manufacturing suppliers predict a market growth of 29.2%

In 2020, the global metal Additive Manufacturing market is valued at EUR 2.03 billion including system, material and part manufacturing supplier sales. Due to the impact of COVID-19, the suppliers’ goal of 28 % sales growth from the previous year could not be met in 2020 and dropped to around 0.5 % overall growth. However, the suppliers have a positive outlook and expect a CAGR of 29.2 % until 2025. Meaning the market will bounce back, nearly matching its strong growth of over 30 % from before the pandemic.
The revenues of the system suppliers are expected to grow at 25.8 %, a slight decrease from last year’s growth expectations of 27.9 %. Especially the established Powder Bed Fusion system suppliers have provided a more conservative outlook compared to the previous years. And yet, the growth expectation is still well in the double-digit range.
The material and part manufacturing suppliers, on the other side, increased their CAGR predictions to 29.5 % and 34.4 %, respectively. After a challenging year, expectations for 2021 to make up for lost business are high. It is generally believed that many projects and budgets were only temporarily postponed and will drive revenue in 2021. Furthermore, the continuous industrialization of the metal Additive Manufacturing technology will drive the use and hence utilization of the installed machine capacity. In 2025, the material consumption is expected to arrive at EUR 2.31 billion in sales revenue and the part manufacturing suppliers predict sales of EUR 2.21 billion.

Metal market growth 2020 and 2025 – supplier vs. buyer

Forecast of suppliers in line with buyer expectations

After a halt of growth in 2020, the AM suppliers project a CAGR of 29.3 % to reach EUR 7.33 billion market volume in 2025. For the same time frame, the buyer group is equally positive and expects a growth of 27.5 %, leading to an overall market size of EUR 6.85 billion. Compared to the previous year’s gap between supplier and buyer forecast of about EUR 1 billion, the more conservative outlook of the machine suppliers has now reduced the discrepancy by about half to EUR 480 million in 2025.
The positive outlook from the buyer side can partially be tributed to the pandemic. The impact of the pandemic with disrupted supply chains and changing demand from their customers illustrated the benefits of flexible production setups. Some users reported the strategic decision to consider Additive Manufacturing technology in future supply chains as a fall back option as a result. While this is certainly not feasible for all products and services, some industries have identified suitable parts where AM can work as an additional source. The AM alternatives are usually higher in manufacturing cost, but can help to reduce the lead time, decrease dependency and mitigate risks of disrupted supply chains to a certain degree. Overall, it will drive the need for AM machine capacity and services and will hence increase the future market volume. The lessons from COVID-19 may have a positive and long-lasting effect on the industrial use of 3D printing in general.
Other factors for an improved buyer outlook include the evolving industrial application and the incidental experience users continuously gain. Wide-spread knowledge on properties of AM materials and design capabilities drives the development of new applications.

Metal AM installed base 2020 and 2025 – supplier vs. buyer

More than 10,000 installed machines in 2019

At the end of 2020, a total of 12,320 metal Additive Manufacturing systems were installed worldwide. The suppliers project an annual growth of installed machines of 22.4 % per year and expect close to 34,000 units by 2025, with 7,328 sold machines in 2025 alone. The system suppliers’ expectations regarding the development of the installed base dropped from a CAGR of 26.0 % in 2019 to 22.4 % in 2020. AMPOWER found that especially the established Powder Bed Fusion suppliers curbed their previously high outlook significantly.
The buyers estimate an annual growth rate of 19.9 % of installed machines which is a slight increase from the previous year, thus a more positive outlook. For 2025, the buyers’ minimal and maximal projection for the installed base of metal AM systems is between 30,217 and 31,700. The specific buyers’ outlook on how many machines will be acquired in the future is often highly dependent on certain internal AM research and development projects. The success or failure of such a project determines the extent of the future implementation of the technology. Most of the installed machines continue to be LB-PBF systems provided by over 60 different system suppliers.
The annual sales of AM printers dropped to 1,991 units in 2020, a marginal decrease from 1,999 units in 2019 and at a similar level of 1,976 units in 2018. After the start of the consolidation phase in 2019, the economic impact of COVID-19 increased the reservation on the user side to invest in new machines and led to a halt of many sales projects. While some purchases were postponed until budgets are available again, others were permanently cancelled. Some system vendors reported a drop of machine sales by more than 50 % compared to the previous year, while other established system suppliers were able to increase their sales output.
In 2025, the system suppliers foretell annual sales of 7,328 units, which represents a CAGR of 29.9 %. The system supplier expectations exceed the buyer predictions as they plan to acquire only about 5,000 units in 2025. This results in a gap of about 2,000 machines between the predictions of suppliers and buyers in the year of 2025. Like the previous year, the data indicates an overestimation of the sales targets by the system suppliers. Furthermore, the machine supplier will continue to experience strong competition from direct competitors as well as alternative AM technologies despite the positive outlook and strong growth expectations from the buyers.

Market comparison with CNC

AM niche technology in metal processing

To put the metal Additive Manufacturing system market in perspective, the AMPOWER Report compares the market volume to the CNC manufacturing technology. It becomes apparent, that the metal AM market size is still a niche compared to established global metal processing markets. The global CNC machine market includes systems for metal processing technologies based on computer numeric controlled machines such as turning, milling, grinding, laser processing and welding machines. The growth rate of that market is estimated at a constant CAGR of about 7 % over the next years. It leads to a total market size of over EUR 100 billion in 2025.
In contrast, the metal Additive Manufacturing machine market is only a fraction of this volume. While the CAGR is estimated much higher at 25.8 %, the total volume is expected to be only at 2.81 billion in 2025.
In the unlikely event that the projected growth for both markets stay at the same level, the metal AM market requires more than 20 years to surpass the CNC industry in volume. Highly productive technologies such as metal Binder Jetting or Direct Energy Deposition possess the potential to increase the adoption rate of AM technologies in an increasing number of applications. AMPOWER expects Additive Manufacturing to continue its increase in market share, however, it will take time to overcome its niche position.

Data and sources

Published: 25 March 2021

Source: AMPOWER 2021

Source CNC market numbers: Grand view research 2020

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