The printing toners market is expected to see 5.8 percent growth per year through to 2020.
Market analysts Transparency Market Research reported on the market in its study, Printing toners market – global industry analysis, size, share, growth, trends and forecast, 2014 – 2020, in which it found that the market was worth $2.91 billion (€2.72 billion) in 2013 and “is likely” to reach a value of $4.33 billion (€4.06 billion) by 2020, based on a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.8 percent between 2014 and 2020.
The analysts added that in value terms, the “global demand” for printing toners was 216 kilo tonnes in 2013, and that the “growth of the digital printing market in the packaging sector is expected to be one of the primary factors driving the printing toners market during the forecast period”. In turn, “shifting consumer preference from printing inks to toners”, alongside the “increase in commercial printing”, are said to be “other key parameters expected to augment demand” over the next few years.
One negative prediction however was that “adverse environmental impact of toners”, leading to “the presence of stringent regulations” is something that is “anticipated to hamper market growth”, though the development of bio-based toners “is expected to open new opportunities for further development of the market” in future. Conventional toners dominated in volume terms, with over 70 percent share in 2013, as “most printers available globally” utilise conventional toner.
This toner is prepared “via the conventional method”, but “chemically-prepared” toners are “expected to gain high popularity over the next few years due to their superior technical aspects”, including “uniform particle size” for “faster printing”. The development of “economical printers compatible with chemically-prepared toners” is also said by the analysts to be “anticipated” as “another vital parameter driving demand”.
Polyester resin-based toners, alongside styrene-acrylic toners, dominated the market in 2013, and accounted for over 95 percent of volume and revenue share, with both “expected to be the fastest growing segments” through to 2020. Polyester is “comparatively inexpensive and easily available globally”, so is “widely used in printing toners”, while powder “formed by blending polyester and styrene-acrylic and other speciality polymers” is expected to see “above-average growth”.
Changing consumer preferences, in order to “obtain better aesthetic appeal” through colour printing, will “fuel demand for colour” toners in tandem with a “decline in prices of colour printing devices and toners”, and colour toners are expected to see a CAGR of over 3.5 percent between 2014 and 2020. On a market basis, North America and Europe dominated in revenue terms, and this is “expected to continue” through to 2020.
However, Transparency Market Research added that an “increase in the number of manufacturing facilities in [the] Asia Pacific” and the rest of the world, “coupled with rising applications” for toners, is “anticipated to boost the market in these regions”, and in terms of revenue, the Asia Pacific market alone is expected to reach $1.165 billion (€1.092 billion) by 2020.
The report concluded by noting that the market “is highly-fragmented in nature due to the presence of numerous manufacturers”, and named Canon, Xerox, Samsung Fine Chemicals and Astro-Med Inc as “some of the renowned companies operating in the market”.