A financial report shows Chinese 3D printer manufacturers almost doubled their shipments in 2026.
By now it’s become entirely clear that the majority of desktop 3D printers are produced in China by a short list of companies, sometimes referred to as the “Dragons”. Bambu Lab, Creality, ELEGOO, Snapmaker, and Anycubic are among them.
We’ve all seen machines from these companies appearing increasingly frequently, but now we can see precisely how many machines are being produced.
The report from Nanjixiong 3D Printing Network used data from China’s government General Administration of Customs and examined 3D printer equipment exports during the first half of 2026.
They found that an astounding 3.616M machines were exported — and this does not include machines used domestically in China. That is a run rate of 7.2M 3D printers per year, although it is highly likely the rate of production will continue to increase. Perhaps we might see 10M machines exported by year’s end?
How does this compare with last year? Evidently, in the first half of 2025, exports were 1.902M, so the number of units increased by 90%. Almost doubled.
The statistics also show the number of imports of additive manufacturing equipment into China, which, when measured by cash, were 41X smaller than the exports.
Another interesting statistic was the breakdown of the revenue. Some 89% is from the machines, while 11% is from parts.
Amazingly, the amount of exports of parts alone exceeds the revenue of many Western 3D printer manufacturers.
The report also lists 760 units of industrial metal 3D printers were exported in the first half of the year. While that number is a lot smaller than the desktop unit count, these are far bigger machines with an average cost exceeding US$60,000.
The sheer scale and growth rates of these companies are something to behold — and to be feared by Western 3D printer manufacturers that are rapidly falling behind.
Via Nanjixiong 3D Printing Network (Chinese)
