Fast-growing inkjet market to pass $100 billion in 2023

The global market for inkjet printing will grow at a rate of 9.4% year-on-year and will be worth $109 billion in 2023, according to The Future of Inkjet Printing to 2023 report from Smithers Pira.

This contrasts positively with the general outlook for the print industry where growth is occurring at a more moderate 0.8% annually.

Dr Sean Smyth, print consultant at Smithers Pira author of the report, said: “The economics and reliability of inkjet are consistently improving as a result of heavy investment in printing heads, machinery, inks and drying systems, associated software and – increasingly – substrates.

“There is strong growth across most of these disparate activities because the non-impact process is very flexible and capable of printing at high-quality and speed, making it suitable to print many products, while the cost position is becoming more economic against most analogue printing alternatives.

“Inkjet is winning market share from analogue processes as well as opening up new applications, with new routes to market and workflows developing.”

With the potential of inkjet increasingly appreciated it is changing printer business models, disrupting established supply chains, and adding new value-adding options.