GLEN ALLEN, VA /Marketwire/ -- Industry analyst firm NanoMarkets has released the new report "Silver Inks and Pastes Market—2011," which pinpoints the opportunities that exist in the silver inks and pastes market, despite the disruption caused by the recent surge in silver prices. With major users of these materials attempting to reduce silver consumption, NanoMarkets sees a new opportunity for specialist types of inks, including nanosilver inks, products that have largely been a disappointment to date.
From the Report
Increasing silver prices and a decline in the number of plasma TVs sold will cause the total market for silver inks and pastes to stagnate at around $4.5 billion over the next few years. However, there will still be opportunities for firms nimble enough to compete in this new market environment.
NanoMarkets expects strong growth for silver inks that contain smaller amounts of bulk silver because they either mix silver with a lower cost material or use specially engineered silver particles. NanoMarkets estimates that these specialist inks could generate revenues of $660 million by 2016.
It also says that firms that make nanosilver inks should message the potential cost reductions that the use of nanosilver inks can bring and believes that the sales of nanosilver inks could reach $300 million by 2016. The new report also suggests that suppliers should be focusing on applications such as miniaturized PCBs and certain types of capacitors, where they can generate short-term revenues.
NanoMarkets believes the PV sector will be much more able to reduce its use of silver than thick film. Nonetheless, it expects that there will still be significant opportunities for silver inks and pastes in the PV sector because there are certain areas where they are indispensible. These areas include the front electrodes of c-Si PV cells and the silver grids applied on the front of thin-film and organic PV modules. Annual sales of silver inks and pastes in the PV segment will be around $1.9 billion for the next few years.
About the Report
This report analyzes and quantifies the opportunities for conductive silver inks and pastes in critical sectors, including photovoltaics, displays, lighting, RFID, sensors, and traditional thick-film applications, such as capacitors, membrane switches, and PCBs. The report includes profiles of more than 20 firms supplying silver inks and pastes, as well as a detailed eight-year forecast for all of the applications both in volume and value terms.
About NanoMarkets
NanoMarkets tracks and analyzes emerging market opportunities in energy and electronics markets, created by developments in advanced materials. The firm is a recognized leader in industry analysis and forecasts for the silver inks business and has been covering this market since 2005. Visit the company's Web site for a full listing of NanoMarkets' reports and other services.