Worldwide shipments of industrial printers grew a modest 0,1% YoY in the second quarter of 2024 (2Q24), according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Industrial Printer Tracker. However, the market saw shipment growth of 1% compared to the first quarter of 2024.

“While the large format segment grew less than 1% in the second quarter, other segments of the industrial printer market showed some promising growth,” says Tim Greene, research director, Hardcopy Solutions at IDC. “We saw solid growth in both the direct-to-shape and industrial textile printer segments – and we continue to see the move from direct-to-garment (DTG) into direct-to-film (DTF), which is a subset of the large format printer numbers.

“The gains in these segments helped the overall market to remain effectively flat through the first half of 2024 compared to 2023,” Greene says.

Worldwide Industrial Segment Highlights for Q2 2024 include:

  • Large format printer shipments grew 0,2% compared to Q2 2023.
  • Direct-to-shape printer shipments grew 10,1% YoY.
  • Industrial textile printer shipments grew by 15,9% compared to Q2 2023.
  • Label & packaging printer shipments grew 25,7% YoY.

North America saw total shipment growth of 3,8% compared to Q1 2024. Asia/Pacific declined 0,2% compared to the first quarter of 2024 with solid growth in China offsetting soft results in the rest of the region. Western and Eastern Europe both delivered solid growth compared to Q1 2024.