It looks like the Additive Manufacturing market is growing. Stratasys (NASDAQ: SSYS) marked its ninth consecutive year as unit market leader in the additive manufacturing / 3D printing industry, according to Wohlers Report 2011.

Published by Wohlers Associates, Inc., the annual report offers a global review of the additive manufacturing (AM) markets, technologies and applications for the prior year.

Stratasys reported shipment of 2,555 systems in 2010, which accounted for 41% of the global market for industrial AM systems, according to the report. The report also indicated that Stratasys’ 2010 unit sales were more than 3.5 times that of its nearest competitor, and the company has shipped 15,839 systems since its founding.

Over the past decade, Stratasys average annual growth was 24% compared with an industry-wide growth of 18%.

“Stratasys rebounded from the economic downturn to new highs,” says CEO Scott Crump. “We ended 2010 with a record for quarterly revenues and an all-time high for system shipments. We continue to expand 3D printing adoption in partnership with HP. Sales were strong in both our Dimension 3D Printer and Fortus Production 3D Printer lines.”

Wohlers Report 2011 showed a strong recovery for the AM industry as a whole with a 37.4% increase in industrial system shipments, the highest growth in over six years. For the year, the report lists annual industry revenue for products and services as $1.325 billion, a 24.1% increase over 2009. In the AM industry’s 23-year history, its compound annual growth rate has been 26.2%

The report predicts the industry will ship 15,000 industrial systems per year by 2015, driven in large part by systems selling between $5,000 and $25,000, with annual revenues of $5.2 billion by 2020.

Stratasys, Inc.
www.Stratasys.com