Silver Inks and Pastes Markets 2012
This new report on opportunities in the silver inks and pastes market provides an up-to-date survey of the market conditions today and a forecast of the next eight years. NanoMarkets has been covering this sector now for more than five years and this is latest in our ongoing series of industry analysis on silver conductors of various kinds.
In the report, we consider how the persistent environment of relentlessly high silver prices – with no relief in sight – is affecting the markets for these materials. Will this mean a sustained opportunity for alternatives to silver? We also identify the niche opportunities that continue to emerge from the traditional thick-film industry and conversely whether the profound changes going on in the display and solar panel industry will reduce the demand for silver. For example, will the reduction of subsidies for crystalline silicon solar panels (a large consumer of silver pastes) ultimately hurt the silver pastes business and similarly will the steady decline of the plasma display industry have a similar effect? Also examined in this report is the future of nanosilver inks, a product that has been full of unfulfilled promise for several years now. Is it time to give up on the commercialization of these materials?
This rather gloomy set of questions is balanced in the report by an examination of emerging opportunities. For example, large OLED lighting and television panels are just a few years out. Will they prove a vibrant market for printed silver bus lines and interconnects? In addition, in the new policy environment for solar panels, entirely new kinds of photovoltaics are likely to emerge quite quickly. Will they make use of silver in the electrodes the same way that older types of PV did? And all those sensors that will deploy as part of the “Internet of Things,” will they also make significant use of printed silver?
This report explores the emerging opportunities in silver inks and pastes in the light of all these trends and provides an up-to-date guide for finding the growth opportunities and navigating the market challenges. As part of this analysis, we examine the strategies of the key players in the silver inks/pastes markets, and identify what we believe to be the trends indicating likely success (or not) at different firms. Finally, as always we include eight-year market forecasts for silver inks and pastes by application and by material.
In the report, we consider how the persistent environment of relentlessly high silver prices – with no relief in sight – is affecting the markets for these materials. Will this mean a sustained opportunity for alternatives to silver? We also identify the niche opportunities that continue to emerge from the traditional thick-film industry and conversely whether the profound changes going on in the display and solar panel industry will reduce the demand for silver. For example, will the reduction of subsidies for crystalline silicon solar panels (a large consumer of silver pastes) ultimately hurt the silver pastes business and similarly will the steady decline of the plasma display industry have a similar effect? Also examined in this report is the future of nanosilver inks, a product that has been full of unfulfilled promise for several years now. Is it time to give up on the commercialization of these materials?
This rather gloomy set of questions is balanced in the report by an examination of emerging opportunities. For example, large OLED lighting and television panels are just a few years out. Will they prove a vibrant market for printed silver bus lines and interconnects? In addition, in the new policy environment for solar panels, entirely new kinds of photovoltaics are likely to emerge quite quickly. Will they make use of silver in the electrodes the same way that older types of PV did? And all those sensors that will deploy as part of the “Internet of Things,” will they also make significant use of printed silver?
This report explores the emerging opportunities in silver inks and pastes in the light of all these trends and provides an up-to-date guide for finding the growth opportunities and navigating the market challenges. As part of this analysis, we examine the strategies of the key players in the silver inks/pastes markets, and identify what we believe to be the trends indicating likely success (or not) at different firms. Finally, as always we include eight-year market forecasts for silver inks and pastes by application and by material.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
E.1 The Future of Silver Inks and Pastes When Silver Prices are So High
E.2 Thick-Film Electronics: New Opportunities in this Old Market?
E.3 Will the Nanosilver Ink Revolution Ever Happen?
E.4 The Solar Industry: Do No More Subsidies Mean No More Silver?
E.5 Displays and Lighting: What the Decline of Plasma Displays and the Rise of Flexible Displays and OLEDs Mean for Silver
E.6 Winners and Losers in the Silver Inks and Pastes Market
E.7 Will China Become a Major Player in Printed Silver?
E.8 Summary of Eight-Year Forecasts for Silver Inks and Pastes
CHAPTER ONE: AN INTRODUCTION TO THIS REPORT
1.1 Ongoing Importance of Silver Inks and Pastes to Industrial Electronics Markets
1.1.1 The Effect of the High Price of Silver on the Industrial Inks and Pastes Market
1.1.2 Where is the Growth for Silver Inks?
1.1.3 Prospects for Silver Inks and Pastes in Photovoltaic Panels
1.1.4 Up-and-Coming Materials–Hybrids, Nanosilver and Silver Substitutes
1.2 Objectives and Scope of This Report
1.3 Methodology
1.4 Plan of This Report
CHAPTER TWO: SILVER INKS AND PASTE MATERIALS
2.1 Developments Since Our Last Report
2.1.1 The Impact of Continuing High (and Volatile) Silver Prices
2.1.2 New Products and New Companies
2.1.3 New Regulations on Nanosilver: Impact on Silver Inks and Pastes
2.2 The Growing Competitive Challenges to Silver from Other Materials
2.1.1 Copper Solutions
2.2.2 Carbon-Based Inks and Pastes
2.2.3 Nanotubes, Conductive Polymers, and Other Emerging Threats
2.3 Is the Nanosilver Inks Revolution Postponed, or Will It Never Happen?
2.3.1 What the Nanosilver Ink Firms Say They are Doing Now
2.3.2 Nanosilver Inks and the Future of Jetted Electronics
2.4 Key Points from This Chapter
CHAPTER THREE: APPLICATIONS FOR SILVER INKS AND PASTES
3.1 Are There Emerging Niche Applications in Traditional Thick-Film Electronics?
3.1.1 Printed Circuit Boards
3.1.2 Membrane Switches
3.1.3 Resistive Heaters
3.1.4 Capacitors and Other Discrete Components
3.2 Solar Panels
3.2.1 Reduced Government Subsidies for Solar: Should the Silver Inks and Pastes Firms Worry?
3.2.2 What to Expect from the Crystalline Silicon PV Sector
3.2.3 New Opportunities for Printed Silver in TFPV
3.2.4 Will New Forms of PV—OPV and DSC—Need Printed Silver in the Future?
3.3 Displays, Lighting, and Silver
3.3.1 Prospects for Silver Inks and Pastes in LCDs
3.3.2 Plasma Displays: A Big Silver User, But Until When?
3.3.3 The Rise of OLED Displays and Lighting: Are There Opportunities for Silver Inks and Pastes?
3.3.4 Electrophoretic Displays: How Might They Use Silver Inks and Pastes?
3.4 RFIDs and Printed Silver
3.4.1 Is Printed Silver in RFIDs an Opportunity Whose Time has Passed?
3.4.2 Nanosilver in RFID Antennas
3.5 Sensors
3.5.1 Printed Silver and the Biosensors and Medical Diagnostics Markets
3.5.2 Silver in the Motion and Security Sensors Market
3.5.3 Sensors and Nanosilver Inks
3.6 Key Points from this Chapter
CHAPTER FOUR: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE SUPPLIER INDUSTRY STRUCTURE FOR SILVER INKS AND PASTES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS
4.1 An Overview of the Supplier Base
4.1.1 New and Notable Start-Ups?
4.1.2 China’s Goal to Become a High-Tech Powerhouse and the Impact on the Silver Inks and Pastes Markets
4.2Analysis of the Latest Product and Marketing Strategies by Leading and Influential Suppliers
4.2.1 Advanced Nano Products
4.2.2 Cima NanoTech
4.3.3 Creative Materials
4.3.4 Sun Chemical Group (U.S.)/DIC Global (Japan)
4.3.5 DuPont (U.S.)
4.3.6 Ferro Corporation (U.S.)
4.3.7 Harima Chemical (Japan)
4.3.8 Henkel Electronics (Germany)
4.3.9 Heraeus (Germany)
4.3.10 InkTec (Korea)
4.3.11 Methode Electronics (U.S.)
CHAPTER FIVE: EIGHT-YEAR FORECASTS FOR SILVER INKS AND PASTES
5.1 Forecasting Methodology and Assumptions
5.1.1 Changes in Assumptions and Methodology Since the Last Report
5.1.2 Pricing of Silver Inks and Pastes
5.2 Forecasts by Application
5.2.1 Photovoltaics
5.2.2 Plasma Displays
5.2.3 OLED Lighting
5.2.3 RFIDs and Sensors
5.2.4 Traditional Thick-Film Applications
5.3 Forecasts by Material
5.3.1 Silver Screen-Printing Pastes – Conventional vs. Nanosilver
5.3.2 Silver Ink-Jet Inks in Electronics – Conventional vs. Nanosilver
5.3.3 Silver Inks: Gravure, Flexographic, and Other
5.4 Summary of Silver Inks and Pastes Markets
5.5 Alternative Scenarios
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS REPORT
E.1 The Future of Silver Inks and Pastes When Silver Prices are So High
E.2 Thick-Film Electronics: New Opportunities in this Old Market?
E.3 Will the Nanosilver Ink Revolution Ever Happen?
E.4 The Solar Industry: Do No More Subsidies Mean No More Silver?
E.5 Displays and Lighting: What the Decline of Plasma Displays and the Rise of Flexible Displays and OLEDs Mean for Silver
E.6 Winners and Losers in the Silver Inks and Pastes Market
E.7 Will China Become a Major Player in Printed Silver?
E.8 Summary of Eight-Year Forecasts for Silver Inks and Pastes
CHAPTER ONE: AN INTRODUCTION TO THIS REPORT
1.1 Ongoing Importance of Silver Inks and Pastes to Industrial Electronics Markets
1.1.1 The Effect of the High Price of Silver on the Industrial Inks and Pastes Market
1.1.2 Where is the Growth for Silver Inks?
1.1.3 Prospects for Silver Inks and Pastes in Photovoltaic Panels
1.1.4 Up-and-Coming Materials–Hybrids, Nanosilver and Silver Substitutes
1.2 Objectives and Scope of This Report
1.3 Methodology
1.4 Plan of This Report
CHAPTER TWO: SILVER INKS AND PASTE MATERIALS
2.1 Developments Since Our Last Report
2.1.1 The Impact of Continuing High (and Volatile) Silver Prices
2.1.2 New Products and New Companies
2.1.3 New Regulations on Nanosilver: Impact on Silver Inks and Pastes
2.2 The Growing Competitive Challenges to Silver from Other Materials
2.1.1 Copper Solutions
2.2.2 Carbon-Based Inks and Pastes
2.2.3 Nanotubes, Conductive Polymers, and Other Emerging Threats
2.3 Is the Nanosilver Inks Revolution Postponed, or Will It Never Happen?
2.3.1 What the Nanosilver Ink Firms Say They are Doing Now
2.3.2 Nanosilver Inks and the Future of Jetted Electronics
2.4 Key Points from This Chapter
CHAPTER THREE: APPLICATIONS FOR SILVER INKS AND PASTES
3.1 Are There Emerging Niche Applications in Traditional Thick-Film Electronics?
3.1.1 Printed Circuit Boards
3.1.2 Membrane Switches
3.1.3 Resistive Heaters
3.1.4 Capacitors and Other Discrete Components
3.2 Solar Panels
3.2.1 Reduced Government Subsidies for Solar: Should the Silver Inks and Pastes Firms Worry?
3.2.2 What to Expect from the Crystalline Silicon PV Sector
3.2.3 New Opportunities for Printed Silver in TFPV
3.2.4 Will New Forms of PV—OPV and DSC—Need Printed Silver in the Future?
3.3 Displays, Lighting, and Silver
3.3.1 Prospects for Silver Inks and Pastes in LCDs
3.3.2 Plasma Displays: A Big Silver User, But Until When?
3.3.3 The Rise of OLED Displays and Lighting: Are There Opportunities for Silver Inks and Pastes?
3.3.4 Electrophoretic Displays: How Might They Use Silver Inks and Pastes?
3.4 RFIDs and Printed Silver
3.4.1 Is Printed Silver in RFIDs an Opportunity Whose Time has Passed?
3.4.2 Nanosilver in RFID Antennas
3.5 Sensors
3.5.1 Printed Silver and the Biosensors and Medical Diagnostics Markets
3.5.2 Silver in the Motion and Security Sensors Market
3.5.3 Sensors and Nanosilver Inks
3.6 Key Points from this Chapter
CHAPTER FOUR: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE SUPPLIER INDUSTRY STRUCTURE FOR SILVER INKS AND PASTES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS
4.1 An Overview of the Supplier Base
4.1.1 New and Notable Start-Ups?
4.1.2 China’s Goal to Become a High-Tech Powerhouse and the Impact on the Silver Inks and Pastes Markets
4.2Analysis of the Latest Product and Marketing Strategies by Leading and Influential Suppliers
4.2.1 Advanced Nano Products
4.2.2 Cima NanoTech
4.3.3 Creative Materials
4.3.4 Sun Chemical Group (U.S.)/DIC Global (Japan)
4.3.5 DuPont (U.S.)
4.3.6 Ferro Corporation (U.S.)
4.3.7 Harima Chemical (Japan)
4.3.8 Henkel Electronics (Germany)
4.3.9 Heraeus (Germany)
4.3.10 InkTec (Korea)
4.3.11 Methode Electronics (U.S.)
CHAPTER FIVE: EIGHT-YEAR FORECASTS FOR SILVER INKS AND PASTES
5.1 Forecasting Methodology and Assumptions
5.1.1 Changes in Assumptions and Methodology Since the Last Report
5.1.2 Pricing of Silver Inks and Pastes
5.2 Forecasts by Application
5.2.1 Photovoltaics
5.2.2 Plasma Displays
5.2.3 OLED Lighting
5.2.3 RFIDs and Sensors
5.2.4 Traditional Thick-Film Applications
5.3 Forecasts by Material
5.3.1 Silver Screen-Printing Pastes – Conventional vs. Nanosilver
5.3.2 Silver Ink-Jet Inks in Electronics – Conventional vs. Nanosilver
5.3.3 Silver Inks: Gravure, Flexographic, and Other
5.4 Summary of Silver Inks and Pastes Markets
5.5 Alternative Scenarios
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS REPORT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LIST OF EXHIBITS
Exhibit E-1 GRAND TOTALS - Summary Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Printing Inks and Pastes
Exhibit 4-1 Overview of Product Portfolios of Selected Silver Ink and Paste Suppliers
Exhibit 4-2 ANP Nanosilver Pastes
Exhibit 4-3 ANP Nanosilver Inkjet Inks
Exhibit 4-4 Creative Materials: Silver Ink Product Range
Exhibit 4-5 Selected Sun Chemical Silver Ink and Paste Products
Exhibit 4-6 Selected Silver-Only Screen Printing Paste Products in the Ferro Portfolio
Exhibit 4-7 Selected Silver And Nanosilver Printing Products From Harima
Exhibit 4-8 Henkel Electronics: Selected Acheson Silver Inks and Pastes
Exhibit 4-9 Overview of Selected Silver Pastes from Heraeus for Thick Film Electronics Applications
Exhibit 4-10 Overview of Selected Silver Pastes for PV Applications from Heraeus
Exhibit 4-11 InkTec Silver and Nanosilver Printing Inks and Pastes
Exhibit 4-12 Selected Methode Silver Conductive Paste and Ink Products
Exhibit 5-1 Pricing of Silver and Silver Inks/Pastes 2012-2019
Exhibit 5-2 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes in Crystalline Silicon (c-Si) PV
Exhibit 5-3 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes for TFPV (all types), DSC, and OPV
Exhibit 5-4 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes in PV Applications by Printing Method
Exhibit 5-5 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes in Plasma Display Panels (PDPs)
Exhibit 5-6 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes in OLED Lighting Applications
Exhibit 5-7 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes in RFIDs (Antennas and Chips)
Exhibit 5-8 Eight Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes for Sensor Applications
Exhibit 5-9 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes for Traditional Thick-Film Applications
Exhibit 5-10 Eight-Year Forecasts of Conventional Silver and Nanosilver Screen Printing Pastes by Application
Exhibit 5-11 Eight-Year Forecasts of Conventional Silver and Nanosilver Inkjet Printing Inks by Application
Exhibit 5-12 Eight-Year Forecasts of Conventional Silver and Nanosilver Flexographic, Gravure, and Other Printing Inks by Application
Exhibit 5-13 GRAND TOTALS - Summary of Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Printing Inks and Pastes
Exhibit E-1 GRAND TOTALS - Summary Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Printing Inks and Pastes
Exhibit 4-1 Overview of Product Portfolios of Selected Silver Ink and Paste Suppliers
Exhibit 4-2 ANP Nanosilver Pastes
Exhibit 4-3 ANP Nanosilver Inkjet Inks
Exhibit 4-4 Creative Materials: Silver Ink Product Range
Exhibit 4-5 Selected Sun Chemical Silver Ink and Paste Products
Exhibit 4-6 Selected Silver-Only Screen Printing Paste Products in the Ferro Portfolio
Exhibit 4-7 Selected Silver And Nanosilver Printing Products From Harima
Exhibit 4-8 Henkel Electronics: Selected Acheson Silver Inks and Pastes
Exhibit 4-9 Overview of Selected Silver Pastes from Heraeus for Thick Film Electronics Applications
Exhibit 4-10 Overview of Selected Silver Pastes for PV Applications from Heraeus
Exhibit 4-11 InkTec Silver and Nanosilver Printing Inks and Pastes
Exhibit 4-12 Selected Methode Silver Conductive Paste and Ink Products
Exhibit 5-1 Pricing of Silver and Silver Inks/Pastes 2012-2019
Exhibit 5-2 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes in Crystalline Silicon (c-Si) PV
Exhibit 5-3 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes for TFPV (all types), DSC, and OPV
Exhibit 5-4 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes in PV Applications by Printing Method
Exhibit 5-5 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes in Plasma Display Panels (PDPs)
Exhibit 5-6 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes in OLED Lighting Applications
Exhibit 5-7 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes in RFIDs (Antennas and Chips)
Exhibit 5-8 Eight Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes for Sensor Applications
Exhibit 5-9 Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Inks and Pastes for Traditional Thick-Film Applications
Exhibit 5-10 Eight-Year Forecasts of Conventional Silver and Nanosilver Screen Printing Pastes by Application
Exhibit 5-11 Eight-Year Forecasts of Conventional Silver and Nanosilver Inkjet Printing Inks by Application
Exhibit 5-12 Eight-Year Forecasts of Conventional Silver and Nanosilver Flexographic, Gravure, and Other Printing Inks by Application
Exhibit 5-13 GRAND TOTALS - Summary of Eight-Year Forecasts of Silver Printing Inks and Pastes
