3D Printing Revenues Jump 25%, Entry-Level and Industrial Shipments Rebound

The clearest engine remained the low-cost desktop side. CONTEXT said Chinese vendors accounted for more than 90% of global entry-level shipments in recent reporting, with Creality, Anycubic, Elegoo and Bambu Lab sitting at the center of that surge. Chris Connery said entry-level 3D printing has never been hotter, pointing to the energy buyers were bringing to the recent TCT Asia show in Shanghai. For a market that had spent much of the previous stretch grinding through weaker demand, that kind of volume matters because it keeps desktop ecosystems expanding even as more expensive categories cool.

Industrial printing also showed a real turn. CONTEXT said industrial system shipments rose 12% in the quarter, while metal powder bed fusion grew 24% in unit shipments. BLT, Eplus3D, ZRapid Tech and Farsoon led unit share in that segment, while EOS and Nikon SLM Solutions held the lead in revenue share. In China, UnionTech was singled out as a meaningful growth driver in metals, helped by demand in the shoe-mould market. Connery said the industrial high end had moved beyond the old "expansion-at-any-cost" mindset and was now focused on places where additive already delivered clear economic value, especially aerospace, defence and domestic Chinese manufacturing.

That recovery stands out because the market had been under real strain. In the third quarter of 2024, industrial shipments fell 24% year over year and midrange shipments dropped 8%, while entry-level printers still managed a 28% gain. For full-year 2024, entry-level shipments rose 26%, but professional systems fell 15%, midrange systems fell 11% and industrial systems fell 17%. CONTEXT also said the professional segment was down 14% in a recent quarter and the midrange segment down 13%, showing how demand continued to migrate toward cheaper machines.