Spectroscopy Market Poised for a Big Leap
The spectroscopy market structure is changing rapidly.
Constant technological innovations are pushing the manufacturers to give a
better performance. The Spectroscopy market is complex as numerous
technologies combine to create the perfect instrument. So it comes hardly as
a surprise that it has experienced overtime a drastic change in terms of
dynamics, product ranges, top performers, leaders, and instrumentation and
commercial/research applications. The manufacturers have clearly understood
that to capture the niche markets they need to have specialised
applications. Market data on spectroscopy is difficult to gather. In the
year 2004, The global revenue generated in the spectroscopy sphere was about
$5.7 billion. In 2006 this figure was estimated at around $7.2 billion . The
United States Spectroscopy market has shown an average annual growth rate of
9.1% in this period and sales were around $4.3 billion around 2007.
Segments
of the Spectroscopy Market
Spectroscopy
market can be broadly classified into three distinct sectors. They are
molecular spectroscopy, atomic spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. There is
a significant difference in the techniques being applied in each sector
along with even intra-sector differences. The overall Spectroscopy market
can be graphically depicted as.
The growth of each of these segments
for the year 2005 to 2008 is represented graphically as under.
Future
Outlook of The Spectroscopy Market
The spectroscopy market is showing a continuous and robust growth and in
future also it is expected to grow. Some of the projected growth areas are
the following.
- Hyphenated techniques that involves Mass Spectroscopy. It is
predicted to generate more than $ 3.3 billion in revenue by this year.
- X-ray techniques like XRF and XRD which is used in particular by
electronic manufacturers for compliance is projected to grow over 10%.
- NMR spectroscopy, owing to a growth in protein research is also
likely to grow by 10%.
The
Atomic Spectrometry Market
Atomic
spectroscopy constitutes the second largest sector of spectroscopy market.
Atomic spectroscopy, featuring vital constituents like x-ray, arc/spark and
plasma devices, is showing a good growth over the years. In the year 2005 it
commanded a market of about $942 million. By 2010 it is expected to grow at
rate of about 6.6 percent per year.
The demand for atomic spectroscopy instrumentation has been fuelled by the
spiralling prices of minerals and metals. This is coupled with the recently
enacted environmental regulations. However these positive effects do not
have an uniform effect on all the spectroscopy methods but differ
considerably based upon the efficiency and usefulness of individual
spectroscopic methods for meeting analytical requirements. In addition the
expanding markets in China, India along with other emerging economies are
changing the regional demand.
XRF and atomic absorption (AA) respectively constitutes the two largest
segment of the Atomic spectroscopy market. A great contrast in market growth
can be found in these two product segments
Over the past few years XRF has registered an outstanding growth. No
surprise that it represents a full quarter of the atomic spectroscopy
market. This growth can attributed to a large number of factors. The chief
among them is the impact of the European Union's RoHS rule and other similar
environmental requirements. Other factors like increasing adoption of newer
X-ray technology in the traditional material science markets have also
played a lead in this growth. Growth for XRF handheld units alone has been
projected to exceed $150 million for the year 2007.
In contrast to the phenomenal growth of XRF , the atomic absorbtion
(AA)market is conservative with the emphasis on more traditional techniques.
Although benefited by the environmental regulations, the developed world has
already a large number of installed base. In strong markets like China and
India, where inspite of strong demands instrument prices are low owing to to
strong global and domestic competition. This has resulted in decreasing
dollar value of of the market. .
The
Molecular Spectroscopy Market
The
market for molecular spectroscopy is estimated at $3.3 billion for the
current year (for 2008). the primary focus of the Molecular spectroscopy
instruments is on the important life science industries. In the molecular
spectroscopy market there is no single product that has an absolute
dominance. Significant differences in growth can be observed among the
numerous instrumental techniques with three segments namely NMR, UV–vis,
and infrared (IR) accounting for over 70% of the total molecular
spectroscopy market. Leading the pack is the nuclear magnetic resonance
(NMR) segment. NMR spectroscopy as one of the fastest growing sectors
generates annual revenues over $800 million and is still increasing at
around 10% pa .
UV–vis spectrophotometers constitutes the second largest segment of
the molecular spectroscopy market, but the growth rate of this segment is
the slowest. Raman spectroscopy, is a specialised technique which is
continuing to show an above-average demand, with around 10% growth in the
year 2007. The segmentation of the Molecular Spectroscopy market is shown in
the diagram here.
The
Mass Spectrometry Market
Mass
Spectrometry can be considered to be the growth engine of spectroscopy.
Infact the field of Mass Spectroscopy is the one where high performance is
considered to be the primary purchasing motivation. MS users, and even
molecular biologists vouch for its higher performance and sensitivity. In
2006 the global market for mass spectrometry touched the $2 billion mark
with revenues increasing at more than 9%. Performance for 2007 was also a
strong one. By the current year it is expected to do a business of $2.3
billion. Numerous Mass Spectroscopy products are taking on progressively
more demanding analytical applications in the laboratory. Mass Spectrometers
are gaining popularity as new product introductions show a greater
sensitivity, remarkable speed and a high throughput and all this at an
attractive price tag.
Coming to the different segments of the Mass spectroscopy market. Tandem LC–MS
is by far the largest of the Mass Spectroscopy market. It includes the
triple-quadrupole and ion-trap mass spectrometers. Tandem LC–MS is
marked by rapid technological advancements with considerable performance
enhancements coming in triple-quadrupole and ion-trap technology. The rapid
development in tandem LC–MS is mainly induced by advancements taking
place in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. It has brought
about a revenue of around $700 million in the year 2007.
The TOF LC–MS market consists of quadrupole (Q)-TOF, LC-TOF, and Q(ion
trap)-TOF instruments. The Q-TOF category is the largest selling and is
engaged in an intense battle with FT-MS instruments for proteomics
applications. The TOF LC–MS instruments are very much suitable to the
needs of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Single quadrupole LC–MS instruments are also showing a growth in
popularity. This is due to the fact that they are more economically priced
than the expensive tandem LC–MS products. They can effectively address
the routine applications for quality control and environmental analysis.
