HP’s Latex 370 wide-format printer
Market analysis of the global wide-format segment has predicted it will be worth $8.2 billion (€7.5 billion) by 2022.
The report from analysts Markets and Markets found that the above figure for the market’s value will be accompanied by shipments of 398,300 units in volume terms by 2022 as well, with respective compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) predicted to be three and 4.4 percent. The market’s growth is predicted to be driven by “growing demand for advertising, décor, and textile printing applications”, with the report first looking at signage.
In this sector, the analysts believe that signage is “expected to lead” the market “in terms of volume”, with applications including “indoor signs, shop branding, indicators, large corporate emblems, promotional signage and window displays”. With signage “one of the most widely-used methods of marketing”, and despite there having been a “considerable penetration of digital signage”, the market is still expected to see “steady growth” in retail graphics.
This is particularly expected to occur in indoor point-of-sale (PoS) signage, and a “major factor” is also said to be growth of “organised retail” in emerging economies like India, where such signage is “used extensively”. Another predicted area of growth is the UV-cured ink market, which is expected to “exhibit high growth” through to 2020, because it “does not evaporate”, and “gets set and dries up quickly”, making it “durable and suitable for printing on a wide range of flexible materials” alongside “direct to rigid substrates”.
With these advantages, wide-format printers using UV ink “have been adopted at the fastest rate by the end users”, with the market in the Asia Pacific (APAC) “expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period”. India and China, alongside Japan and South Korea, are set to help the APAC market see growth “at the highest CAGR” between 2016 and 2022 “because of the rapid growth of retail graphics, signage and advertising”.
The report concluded by noting that among the “key players” in the global wide-format industry are: HP Inc; Canon; Epson; Roland; Xerox; Mimaki; Ricoh; Konica Minolta; Agfa; EFI; and Durst.