Healthy growth predicted for electronics components, solid-state drives

BCC Research has released two reports into the future of the electronics components and solid-state drives markets, respectively, predicting continued growth for each.

The report ‘Plastics in Electronics Components: Technologies and Global Markets’ notes that electronics products have invaded virtually all areas of our personal and business lives. As a result, plastics consumption in electronics components has been growing at rates well above the growth in gross domestic product for many years.

“Global semiconductor sales increased 1.1% in 2016 to reach $339 billion, their highest annual level ever,” said BCC Research analyst and senior editor Andrew McWilliams, who authored the report. “The two market segments enjoying the strongest growth were DRAM and light-emitting diodes. Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm, SK Hynix and Broadcom round out the top five global semiconductor producer companies.”

The electronics industry is a major user of high-performance thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers, the report states, with almost every type of engineering thermoplastic (ETP) being used in one type of electronics component or another. Epoxy resins in particular continue to dominate within the family of thermosetting resins because of their exclusive use in rigid PCBs and also in encapsulation.

The report did find, however, that electronics companies are currently pursuing more environment-friendly materials, including plastics that are easy to recycle and that contain no halogens or heavy metals. Furthermore, as products become thinner and lighter, companies are simplifying and speeding production while designers are reducing the total number of parts.

The company has also released its analysis into solid-state drives (SSDs), a market which has been spurred by growing demand for laptops, netbooks and tablets. ‘Solid-state Drives (SSD) Technology: Global Market Analysis’ finds that the SSD market will increase by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.4% through to 2022, when it will be worth $52.5 billion.

The largest market for SSDs through 2022 will be the Americas, with average annual growth of 18.2% between 2017 and 2022, as device manufacturers continue to integrate SSDs into their products. Many market leaders are also choosing to manufacture electronic devices in the Americas as they see cost benefits to regional production. Growth will be more modest in the Asia–Pacific region and the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions.

Market growth in the Americas will come primarily from SSDs with more than 500 GB of storage, as vendors are targeting the 500 GB to 1 TB storage range for smartphones, tablets and basic laptops. SSDs with storage of less than 250 GB will grow at a comparatively modest 9.6% through 2022, when the global market value is projected to reach $6 billion; by comparison, SSDs with more than 1 TB of storage will grow by 16.9% over the same period.

SSD adoption in notebooks alone is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 24.5% between 2016 and 2020, as their speed, stability, quiet operation and suitability for portable devices makes them more a more preferable option than conventional disk drives. But while BCC Research Editorial Director Kevin Fitzgerald notes that the HDD market has “lost to SSD in terms of growth prospect”, he said the former will be alive for at least a few more years.

“SSDs have many performance advantages when compared to hard disks, but at the moment, they come with cost and supply limitations that can restrict their wider acceptance for certain applications,” Fitzgerald said.

Both reports are available on the BCC Research website.