Last year, IBO speculated that environmental applications would help to keep demand for several of the relevant atomic spectroscopy techniques stable in 2009; this turned out to be only partially the case. Although certain elemental analyzers and sum parameter instruments like Total Organic Carbon (TOC) did continue to achieve growth, the workhorse environmental techniques of Atomic Absorbance (AA) and Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) spectroscopy experienced significant sales declines in 2009, as industry and environmental test labs managed to achieve greater workflow with their current instrumentation and delayed replacements of older instruments. AA and ICP are among the larger segments of the atomic spectroscopy market, and their sale declines contributed to the overall 4.3% decrease in sales for this market in 2009. Although AA and ICP will achieve positive growth this year, these markets are forecast to fall short of the 2008 demand. Sales of ICP-MS, the most sensitive atomic spectroscopy technique, remained essentially flat in 2009, but should experience much better growth for 2010, aided by environmental, pharmaceutical, semiconductors and electronics labs. TOC and other sum parameter instruments should also achieve better-than-average growth for the sector. Following on a disappointing 2009, the atomic spectroscopy market is forecast to grow 5.3% in 2010.

In 2010, sales of inorganic elemental analyzers will not improve quite as much as TOC or organic analyzer sales. Part of the reason for the difference is the metals industry, which is a healthy consumer of many specialized metals-analysis instruments in the inorganic elemental analyzers category. Although global metal production has not fully recovered, producers are easing cutbacks, which should provide a moderate beneficial effect to that market, as well as the market for arc-spark optical emission spectroscopy, which is almost entirely dependent on metals analysis. This effect also applies to the X-ray fluorescence (XRF) market, which has utility in metals analysis. But the XRF market has become a very diverse market, with applications ranging from metals and semiconductors to environmental analysis of soils or paint and the analysis of consumer products for hazardous substances. Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and similar directives have helped grow the XRF market into the largest individual technique in the atomic spectroscopy market over the past few years. New regulations on lead, cadmium and other hazardous elements in toys continue to help expand the market in the short term. Although XRF has been subject to many conflicting trends and drivers, the short-term outlook is for significant growth in 2010. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) should achieve the greatest growth in 2010 at 7.4%. The major driver for XRD is life science research on the crystallography of proteins and small molecules.

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s leading position in the atomic spectroscopy market is due to its participation in all of the individual technology segments, and its strength in several individual markets. PerkinElmer, with a 10% share, competes primarily in AA, ICP and ICP-MS, but also provides elemental analyzers. The next three companies, PANalytical (Spectris), Rigaku and Bruker, are principally involved in XRF and XRD. The sixth largest vendor, Varian Instruments, is being acquired by Agilent, which itself has a leading market share in the ICP-MS market. Considered together, Agilent and Varian would hold the third position in the overall market, with a market share of about 9%. More focused players dominate in some markets, such as Spectro Analytical (AMETEK), which leads the arc-spark market, and LECO, which rules both the inorganic and organic elemental analysis markets.

Atomic Spectroscopy Market Leaders

XRF PANalytical (Spectris), Thermo Fisher Sci.

AA PerkinElmer, Varian

ICP PerkinElmer, Varian

Elemental Analyzers

Organic LECO, PerkinElmer

Inorganic LECO, Horiba

TOC Hach (Danaher), Shimadzu

XRD Rigaku, Bruker

ICP-MS Agilent, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Arc-Spark Spectro (AMETEK), Thermo Fisher Sci.

Atomic Spectroscopy 2009–2010

Market Share Growth Rate

XRF 27.5% 7.1%

XRD 15.8% 7.4%

AA 13.6% 2.1%

ICP 12.6% 3.9%

ICP-MS 10.6% 5.7%

Inorg. Elemental Analyzers 7.1% 3.5%

Arc-Spark 7.0% 2.0%

Sum Parameters 3.8% 6.5%

Org. Elemental Analyzers 2.0% 6.9%

Total 100.0% 5.3%

Chart: 2008–2011 Total Atomic Spectroscopy Market

2008 2009 2010 2011

Atomic Spectroscopy 2966 2838 2987 3176

Chart: 2009 Atomic Spectroscopy Market by Product Type

Initial Systems 1910

Aftermarket 500

Service 428

Chart: 2009 Atomic Spectroscopy Suppliers Market Shares

Thermo Fisher 16%

PerkinElmer 10%

Spectris 9%

Rigaku 9%

Bruker 8%

Other 48%