GLEN ALLEN, VA /PRNewswire/ -- Industry analyst firm NanoMarkets announced the release of its latest report on industrial silver markets titled "The Silver Inks and Pastes Market 2013-2020." The report quantifies the opportunities for printed silver in electronics applications over the next eight years. While the industry will continue to drag from declining demand from the solar industry, NanoMarkets still sees opportunities for silver inks and pastes manufacturers both in traditional thick-film markets and emerging display, lighting, and electronics markets.
About the Report
This report analyzes the opportunities for silver inks and pastes in all the relevant, major markets for printed silver circuitry, including photovoltaics (PV), displays, lighting, RFIDs, sensors, and the traditional thick-film applications. The report also discusses the product development and marketing strategies of some of the leading suppliers of silver inks and pastes, including DIC/Sun Chemical, DuPont, Ferro, Harima Chemical, Henkel, Heraeus, Ink-Tec, Methode, and others. Finally, the report includes a detailed eight-year forecasts for the materials in both volume and value terms and broken out by application, by ink/paste type (high-firing vs. low-temperature curing products), ink/past composition (nanosilver vs. conventional silver), and printing method (screen-printing, ink-jet, and other methods).
From the Report Conventional PV are extremely cost-sensitive, and expensive silver circuitry is increasingly being replaced with cheaper alternatives, especially in backside PV metallization. NanoMarkets projects that silver inks and pastes in the PV sector will decline from a value of $4.9 billion in 2013 to about $3.4 billion in 2020. Amid the gloom, however, there is some good news:
- Silver's superior conductivity and compatibility with low-temperature processing means that it is hard to replace in many applications, including traditional applications for printed silver in the thick-film electronics market. Traditional thick-film applications for printed silver will use $2.4 billion worth of silver inks and pastes in 2013, and this sector will grow to a value of about $3.4 billion by 2020.
- In addition, the ongoing megatrend toward miniaturization of electronic circuitry means that manufacturers will be looking for higher value-added inks that target specific, new niches. This trend will lead to increasing opportunities for higher resolution printing inks designed for deposition by ink-jet, flexographic, gravure, and other printing methods. While the market in 2013 for silver inks is expected to a modest $260 million, the value could grow to well over $1 billion by the end of the decade.
- Finally, several new sectors may turn out to be big users of printed silver circuitry. Possibilities are flexible displays—perhaps still three to five years away—OLED lighting, which could turn into a big user of silver if the technology takes off as expected; and the sensors market, which is growing as part of the ubiquitous electronics trend that seeks to create a world of pervasive computing and an Internet of Things.
About NanoMarkets
NanoMarkets tracks and analyzes emerging market opportunities in energy, solid-state lighting, electronics, and other markets created by developments in advanced materials. The firm is a recognized leader in industry analysis and forecasts for the silver inks and pastes business and has been covering this market for more than six years.