IDC Finds China Consumables Market Declined in 1Q2013

IDC’s China Quarterly Consumables Tracker revealed the total shipment of printing consumables in China in 1Q2013 reached almost 26.96 million units, a decline of 8.2% compared with 4Q2012, and remained flat year-on-year (YOY). The revenue of printing consumables shipped in 1Q2013 was US$530 million, a decrease of 6.0% compared with 4Q2012 and a slight decrease of 0.8% YOY.

The IDC report also revealed some key findings. High-capacity cartridges provided new directions for the original inkjet vendors, and have become an irreversible trend in the inkjet consumables market. Considering the increasing costs of recycling, processing and re-engineering, as well as the technical improvement of DIY products and the impact of CISS, more compatible cartridge vendors will shift from the cartridge dominated inkjet consumables market, to the wider commercial laser consumables market. With the explosive growth of the size of Internet sales, networks have increasingly become the main channels for the sale of counterfeit products, posing a threat to the original products.

Raymond Huo, Senior Market Analyst, Computing Systems Research, IDC China, says, “As Q1 is usually a low season for the sales of printing consumables, the revenue in 1Q2013 showed a marked decline compared with last quarter. However, under the background of steady growth in printer sales and recovering market demand, IDC forecasts that 2Q2013 will see a significant rebound in both the shipment and the revenue of printing consumables.” Huo predicted that revenue in 2013 will grow by 12.7% over last year, while the total revenue of inkjet and laser consumables is expected to reach US$ 2.2 billion.