Are 3D Printer Shipments Back to Pre-COVID Levels?

When the pandemic shut down the world last year, a number of industries were severely impacted. However, 3D printing proved to be more robust than many others. That being said, a few studies have shown that though it did not suffer as much as other industries, 3D printing was still impacted by the pandemic. This was especially seen in terms of printer sales. A new market intelligence from CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company, has confirmed this fact, showing that 3D printer shipments in 2021 have not actually yet surpassed levels from 2019. However, they have still grown significantly from 2020 and they believe that the levels should recover by the next year.

There have been a number of surveys conducted this year that have shown the strength of the 3D printing market. Still, it is clear that it was affected by the pandemic. In this market research, CONTEXT stressed two trends that were present last year. Notably, that though sales of industrial and design 3D printer shipments decreased significantly, sales of hobby and DIY 3D printers actually increased 18% in 2020. They attributed this difference to the fact that people who were home due to the pandemic saw the value in owning their own 3D printers, especially hobbyists.

The sale of industrial and design 3D printers has grown since 2020, though the numbers are still slightly below pre-pandemic numbers (photo credits: CONTEXT)

Of course, the findings from 2021 are quite different. For one, CONTEXT has found that both these trends have started to reverse. For example, personal and hobby printers have see far less growth than the previous year, with shipments of fully-assembled printers that cost $2.5K down -32%. On the other hand, sales of industrial and design 3D printers have increased. As you can see in the graph above, sales of design 3D printers (defined by the company as those costing between $20k and $110k) have increased by 43% since 2020 while the sale of industrial 3D printers (or those costing over $100k) have increased 61%. Additionally, they note that positive changes in industrial printer shipments were most significant in North America, while they only rose modestly in Western Europe and China.