The global market outlook for AC-DC and DC-DC power supplies is set for healthy expansion starting this year until at least 2018, with revenue during these four years projected to grow by $3.5 billion, according to a new report from IHS Technology. Market revenue will expand to $25.1 billion in 2018, up from $21.6 billion in 2014.
The hefty four-year increase is an improvement compared to the previous three years from 2010 to 2013, when revenue grew by less than $1.0 billion. Growth this year is anticipated at 4.6 percent, with expansion to be as robust or even strengthen in 2015 and 2016.
“The markets for most applications that use a power supply are now growing again after a couple of gloomy years, with emerging applications such as power supplies for light-emitting diode (LED) lighting and media tablets leading the way,” said Jonathon Eykyn, power supply and storage component analyst for IHS. “Demand for power supplies for these two applications alone is projected to grow by more than $2.5 billion from 2014 to 2018, but other power supply markets—such as telecommunications, data communications and industrial—are also projected to provide growth opportunities to power supply vendors in the coming years.”
Aside from emerging applications driving growth, many projects that had been cancelled or postponed because of economic concerns in the past are now being restarted to coincide with new projects and technology rollouts, further stimulating the market. Also fueling significant expansion in the demand for power supplies is the continued growth of data centers to cope with the rise of cloud computing and the Internet of Things. Thanks to such drivers, revenue for power supplies to the server, storage and networking markets is projected to climb 24 percent from 2014 to 2018.
Growth is also solid in the markets for cellphone power supplies, with revenue forecast to ascend more than 8 percent in 2014. However, growth will slow after this year as more phones begin to ship without a bundled charger.
Meanwhile, the power supplies market for desktop PCs and notebooks is calculated to decline by around 2 percent every year from 2014 to 2018. This is because the traditional computing markets of desktop PCs and notebooks are set to deteriorate as consumers continue to favor more mobile solutions, such as media tablets and even cellphones.
All of these changes are influencing the state of the power supply market. In particular, market share rankings for 2013 were turbulent with six of the top 10 manufacturers changing positions and two new companies entering the elite tier. Overall, Delta Electronics retained its position as the world’s largest supplier of merchant power supplies, followed by Emerson and Lite-On.
The two suppliers that grew the most in market share in 2013 were Salcomp and Mean Well, whose combined revenue rose more than 30 percent and added 1.3 percent to their share of market compared to 2012.
“These suppliers are well-entrenched within the fast-growing cellphone and LED lighting markets,” Eykyn said. “It’s clear from these results that other manufacturers will have to continue to diversify their portfolios in order to remain competitive.”
These findings can be found in the forthcoming report, The World Market for AC-DC & DC-DC Merchant Power Supplies from the Power & Energy service of IHS. The full report from IHS includes analysis of the opportunities for commodity AC-DC, as well as non-commodity AC-DC and DC-DC power supplies across 22 applications, with forecasts through 2018. It also presents market-share estimates with 13 separate splits.
