The advantages of mass spectrometry (MS) as an instrumental technique continue to spur significant growth in the market. New instrument and software product introductions continue to fuel demand. Overall, growth in demand for MS is forecast at 7.2% for 2016 and total revenue will exceed $3.7 billion for the year.

With the exception of gas chromatography/MS (GC/MS), all MS product segments will experience higher growth this year than last year. Recent changes in this market include PerkinElmer’s acquisition of Torion (see IBO 6/30/15). Difficulties in the oil & gas industry combined with weak growth in environmental testing will limit GC/MS growth this year. Still, GC/MS will show growth of 3.3% for the year, lifted in part by the explosive growth of GC time-of-flight (TOF) MS systems and strong expansion in the GC triple quadrupole MS market.

Consequently, GC/MS will not be the slowest growing MS product segment. That dubious distinction belongs to magnetic sector MS, demand for which is also hampered by weakness in environmental testing as well as competition from other MS techniques. Magnetic sector MS demand actually declined last year and will grow just 1.1% in 2016.

Quadrupole LC/MS is by far the largest individual MS product segment, making up more than one-third of the total demand in 2015. Both single quadrupole MS and triple quadrupole MS systems are experiencing strong growth in the current market environment, and demand for these systems is forecast to grow 9.0% in 2016. While research needs continue to push performance of high-end systems triple quadrupole MS in a very competitive market, QC and regulatory testing applications continue to support growth in demand for single quadrupole MS systems as well.

The fastest growing MS product segment for 2016 will be MALDI-TOF MS, which combines a TOF mass analyzer with a laser desorption ion source. This allows samples to be analyzed in a solid matrix, which provides a number of advantages, including the ability to conduct MALDI imaging of solid samples. Growth in this segment is being driven by the establishment of MALDI-TOF as an accepted clinical tool for diagnostics, tissue analysis and microbial identification. Other important applications also exist in research and biopharmaceutical laboratories, so the overall demand is forecast to grow at a nearly double-digit rate in 2016.

The other high-growth MS product segment is portable and in-field MS, although this market still represents only 1.9% of the total MS demand. While portable MS systems have been on the market for quite a few years, newer systems have been engineered to be less bulky and more user friendly. While these systems’ performances do not compare to standard laboratory MS systems, these next generation portable MS systems are helping to expand MS into nontraditional markets, such as food safety. For this year, growth in demand for portable MS is forecast at 9.5%.

The remaining MS product segment is TOF LC/MS. This market continues to shift from LC-TOF MS to Q-TOF MS systems fueled by data-independent acquisition methods. This market is led by SCIEX (Danaher) and Waters. Agilent Technologies and Shimadzu are also participants. Total demand for these systems is forecast to grow 7.1% in 2016.

The FT-MS & ion trap MS market is expected to grow 6.8% this year, with strong demand in Orbitraps, which are sold by Thermo Fisher Scientific, for untargeted analysis applications, offset by weakness in FT-ICR and ion trap MS. Bruker is the leader in FT-ICR.

The number of significant vendors in the MS market is relatively limited. The top six vendors account for 89% of total demand. The overall market leaders are SCIEX, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Agilent Technologies. Most of the top vendors compete in multiple segments. A significant exception is portable MS, where market leaders INFICON and FLIR are quite narrowly focused on that single product segment.