A report from the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics reveals something interesting about the 3D print industry.
While statistics from China are sometimes questioned, let’s have a look at what they’re saying in this report.
The report, written by their chief statistician, Sun Xiao, is quite high level and talks about general trends in several areas of industry. For example, they say things like “Industrial production is generally stable, and the transformation and upgrading continue to be promoted”, and “The proportion of the equipment manufacturing industry continues to increase, and the industrial structure continues to be optimized”.
But if you dig into one paragraph dealing with digital product manufacturing, the report says the following:
“In terms of products, the output of smart consumer equipment products such as smart bracelets and 5G smartphones increased by 27.6% and 11.5% respectively; the output of intelligent production equipment products such as 3D printing equipment, industrial control computers and systems, and security automation monitoring equipment increased by 100.5%, 56.5%, and 31% respectively.”
That literally says that the Chinese 3D printer manufacturers, including companies like Bambu Lab, Elegoo, Anycubic, Farsoon, Creality, Bright Laser, etc., effectively doubled their collective output over the past year.
Certainly, they did not each double; it’s very likely that some more than doubled, while others were lower in growth. My suspicion is that Bambu Lab and Creality were the true drivers behind this growth, as they are the two companies that sell the highest number of 3D printers. Bambu Lab has been identified by analysts as having the highest growth rate, and it’s therefore they are behind most of the 100.5% year-on-year growth.
This is good news for these companies, of course. But what about the rest of the world?
I am not reading any reports saying that any other large 3D printer manufacturer is doubling its production in the past year, aside from smaller operations where it’s a lot easier to grow at that rate. In the case of the Chinese companies, they are likely producing millions of machines. As far as I know, no other 3D printer manufacturers outside of China are doing so.
Statistics such as these point toward future Chinese domination of the 3D print industry. It’s one of several signals along this line, with another being that several huge Chinese corporations recently invested in several of these 3D printer manufacturers. Again, nothing like that is happening in the West.
What is happening in the West? The US government recently banned the use of Chinese 3D printers in government departments.
That may leave the US behind the rest of the world who continue to use the inexpensive and increasingly capable Chinese 3D printers. That is, unless an American manufacturer is able to produce machines of similar capability — and price.
