Signs of recovery for large format and industrial print markets in the Asia Pacific

04 September 2020: The latest Quarterly Industrial Printer Tracker from global researcher International Data Corporation (IDC) states that the Asia/Pacific region showed the start of a recovery in the second quarter. However, the new data shows that industrial printer shipments were ‘significantly impacted’ by the COVID-19 crisis on a worldwide basis in the second quarter of 2020 (2Q20).

The industrial printer market, comprised of the Large Format, Packaging & Label, Direct-to-Shape, Direct-to-Garment, and Industrial Textile printer segments, saw worldwide shipments decline by 46.8% year over year in 2Q20.

“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.”

The Asia/Pacific region showed the start of a recovery in the second quarter, with shipment growth compared to Q1 in the Direct-to-Shape, Industrial Textile, Large Format, and Label & Packaging segments, the research found.

Shipments in North America declined by over 20% while in Europe it declined by almost 42% compared to Q1. Shipments in the Direct-to-Garment segment declined just over 20% in 2Q20 compared to the first quarter. Shipments in the Direct-to-Shape segment declined by over 26% in 2Q20 compared to 1Q20. Industrial Textile printer shipments contracted just 7% compared to 1Q20, with growth in the Asia/Pacific region offsetting declines in other regions. Large format printer shipments declined almost 25% worldwide in 2Q20 compared to 1Q20.

IDC expects both units and shipment value will stabilize in the second half of 2020 as the different geographic regions go through different phases of recovery.