Decline in Silver Pastes Market Expected
Industry analyst firm NanoMarkets has released its latest report on industrial silver
markets, "Silver Inks and Pastes - 2012." In the report, NanoMarkets
estimates that the total market for silver inks and pastes will grow to a value
of about $7.6 billion in 2012, but that it will contract over the forecast
period to about $6.8 billion by 2018.
The report is the latest in the firm's ongoing coverage of
the silver inks and pastes markets that dates back to 2005 and follows recent
2011 releases on nanosilver, silver powders and flakes and silver transparent
conductors. It analyzes the opportunities for silver inks and pastes in all the
relevant, major markets for these materials, including PV, displays, lighting,
RFIDs, sensors, and traditional thick film applications. The report also
discusses the strategies of some of the leading suppliers of silver inks and
pastes including Cima NanoTech, Creative Materials, DuPont, Ferro, Harima,
Henkel, Heraeus, InkTec, Methode, Sun Chemical and others and includes detailed
forecasts for the materials in both volume and value terms and broken out by
application, by material type, and by printing method.
Several factors are contributing to a declining market value
for silver inks and pastes.
Persistently high silver prices are negatively impacting the business. Companies simply do not have the means to simply pass on price increases to their customers and those same customers are looking very hard for ways to reduce or eliminate the use of silver.
While photovoltaics have been a strong market for silver
inks and pastes up until now, NanoMarkets points to slowing overall growth in
the PV business and the shift towards thin-film PV which does not use nearly as
much silver as traditional crystalline silicon PV. Our forecasts suggest that
as early as 2013, the value of silver inks and pastes consumed by the PV sector
will start to decline.
The emergence of LCD and LED displays has forced plasma
display (PDP) makers into an extremely competitive situation where price is
key. And since PDPs have been a significant user of printed silver, the silver
ink and paste makers are facing additional challenges in what was a strong
market for them.
Finally, while manufacturers of membrane switches, printed
circuit boards, capacitors, etc. will still use large quantities of silver inks
and pastes, it is also clear that they will be looking for more profitable
markets and products which indicate a strong trend toward higher value-added
inks that target specific niches.
On the positive side, while new inks will take some time to develop, they will help to keep margins high in those silver ink and paste products that are being sold. In addition, the market will be looking at the next "applications wave" that it can ride in the way that it has ridden PV for the last five years. Possibilities are flexible displays, OLED lighting, and the sensors market, which is growing in both the (bio)medical sensors area and in everyday, ubiquitous electronics applications that seek to create a world of pervasive computing and contextual user feedback
Additional details about the report are available at
www.nanomarkets.net .
