6 Industrial Laser Solutions JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 www.industrial-lasers.com
technology report
FIBER LASER SALES CONTINUE
TO DRIVE GROWTH
DAVID A. BELFORTE
A year ago, the global manufactur- ing marketappearedto beentering an unstable period. Twelvemonths later, with the 2015 revenue num- bers in, the international economic picture has not improved, and in fact has become more unstable.
Conditions in the leading market economies have deteriorated in
the past months as highly publicized events in China, Southeast
Asia, Europe, and the Middle East have slowed demand, leading to reduced consumer interest in non-essential goods. And
US manufacturing, which had been strong while others weren’t,
began to feel the fallout as factory activity in late 2015 had fallen
to the lowest level since the Great Recession and exports to
the aforementioned areas decreased. And to top it off, the
expected surge in the economies of the emerging nations that
were expected to boost their gross national products (GNPs) to
lead to fresh new markets did not occur. For example, Brazil—a
key component of the BRIC bloc—added to the drag on global
manufacturing growth prospects as this country sank into deep
recession at the end of the third quarter of 2015.
This year’s analysis of the global market was put together in
a less-than-exuberant atmosphere, where the impact global
hotspots were having on manufacturing was clouding GDP
growth prospects in many countries. Economic slowdown in
Asia, led by confusing market conditions in China and Japan
(with the latter now in its second recession since the election of
a pro-business prime minister), quenched growth in Asia, the
world’s largest market. In Europe, economic good news starting
the second half after months of troubling news (the scandal at
VW, the world’s leading auto company) seemed to be stabilizing the economies, but terrorist attacks and Syrian war refugee
ingress then shook Western Europe, leading to concerns that
escalation would quench any growth in the Eurozone economies.
In this rather-tempered global manufacturing environment,
total industrial laser revenues ran counter to the downward trend,
exhibiting quarter after quarter of mid-to-high single-digit growth.
The question being asked is whether or not the laser industry is
out of sync with global manufacturing—after all, there is only one
company turning in strong double-digit growth quarter to quarter: IPG Photonics. Among the others showing modest growth
in 2015 are suppliers of fiber lasers and those selling ultrafast
lasers. The upbeat results in 2015 were led by positive financial
news from the leading makers of these products.
Setting the tone was TRUMPF, the largest industrial laser/sys-
tem supplier whose Laser Technology group turned in a ster-
ling 16.8% growth to €890 million ($946 million) in its 2014/2015
fiscal year, with the company as a whole expecting single-digit
growth for the 2015/2016 period. Challenging TRUMPF for market leadership is IPG Photonics, the world’s leading fiber laser
manufacturer, who reported an outstanding 22% growth in the
third quarter and predicted seasonally adjusted fourth-quarter
sales growth that would take the company close to the $1 billion
revenue level. Following this are Coherent ($802 million, up 1%)
and Rofin-Sinar Technologies ($520 million, down 2%). This performance for industrial lasers in an otherwise-challenged manufacturing sector comes with a slight tarnish when the numbers in
TABLE 1 are reviewed. If it hadn’t been for the strong double-digit
growth of fiber laser revenues, the total industrial laser market
would have barely shown any growth.
In 2014, fiber lasers approached the 50% level of the total
industrial laser market and in 2015 surpassed it (54%). As will
be seen in subsequent tables, fiber laser is the dominant (>50%)
TABLE 1. Industrial laser revenues by laser type ($M)
2014 2015 2016
CO2 $694.5 $656.7 $587.3
Y-TO-Y -5% -11%
FIBER $1,483.6 $1,713.7 $1,902.6
Y-TO-Y 16% 11%
SOLID-STATE $463.9 $463.4 $461.0
Y-TO-Y 0% -1%
OTHER $331.6 $346.3 $367.8
Y-TO-Y 4% 6%
TOTAL $2,973.6 $3,180.1 $3,318.7
Y-TO-Y 6.9% 4.4%
Source: Strategies Unlimited