Aftermarket Toner Making Gains; OEM Inkjet Supplies to Grow

by Kathleen Wirth · Published January 30, 2019 · Updated February 6, 2019

Third-party Canon 118 Replacement Toner Cartridges

According to Print21, third-party after-market toner suppliers have captured 33 percent of monochrome toner shipments worldwide, and about 25 percent of revenue, according to a new report from Virtulytix.

In its 2018 Global Toner Cartridge Forecast, Virtulytix examined the $60 billion worldwide toner-cartridge market across 24 laser printer and MFP segments. Aftermarket sellers have approximately 13 percent of color shipments, and, while OEMs maintain more than 90 percent of revenues in this space, that share is declining, warns Ron Iversen, vice-president of market intelligence at Virtulytix.

“Aftermarket toner cartridge suppliers are targeting the growing mid-high speed color MFP segments where cartridge usage is quite high,” he said. “With almost 80 percent of the toner-cartridge market existing in the color area, this is clearly the biggest risk to OEM manufacturers.”

The 2018 Global Toner Cartridge Forecast uses historical data from 2014-17 to help predict the shape of the toner market around the world up to 2022. This data includes actual and forecasted unit shipments, growth rates, revenue, average selling prices, and printer installed base for each cartridge type.

Inkjet-Supplies Market Growth

Fueled by the growth of the business-inkjet market, and the growth of CISS (continuous inkjet supply system) inkjet models, Virttulytix – in its new 2018 Global Inkjet Cartridge Forecast – also forecasts strong growth for inkjet supplies.

At approximately $33 billion, the global inkjet cartridge market is forecast to be fairly stable into 2022. However, Virtulytix foresees an increasing shift of inkjet cartridge use in the office, with resulting higher page volumes, due to the growing use of CISS and PageWide inkjet printers and MFPs. Of note is that, for the first time, the 2018 Inkjet Cartridge Forecast includes segments for the CISS and PageWide class, providing insight into the impact of the growing use of these technologies.

“Ink-cartridge revenue can represent 60 to 70 percent of overall printer revenues and a high level of profit for printer manufacturers,” commented Virtulytix’s Iversen. “The growing use of CISS and PageWide devices in the office is shifting the mix of inkjet cartridge use from very low page volume consumer use, to higher page volume business use. OEMs, Aftermarket suppliers and resellers should position themselves to take advantage of this opportunity.”

Virtulytix’s 2018 Global Inkjet Cartridge Forecast provides 2018 to 2022 forecasts and including historical data for 2014 to 2017. The forecast provides a global view of the inkjet cartridge market, and forecast and historical information is presented across 13 inkjet printer segments.

The Global 2018 Inkjet Cartridge forecast will be available for ordering on the Virtulytix website in February.