IBO has made some minor changes to the separations market compared with last year’s forecast issue (see IBO 1/15/12). The overall market size and definition remain consistent, but how we account for a few categories has been updated. Perhaps the most obvious change is the addition of supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), which was disaggregated from the GC market. We have also removed the chemical sensor/electronic nose market, which was previously in the Other category with thin layer chromatography (TLC), and moved it into the GC segment.

Sales for the separations market, which accounts for 17% of the total analytical and life sciences instrumentation market, increased 2.4% to $7.6 billion in 2012. Demand was mainly driven by aftermarket and service, while initial system sales were basically flat. The market in 2011 was particularly strong for initial systems, fueled by stimulus money and positive currency translation. However, the market dynamics changed last year, with budget sequestration and austerity measures as well as negative currency effects.

Demand from Asia, Latin America and the rest of the world buoyed the separations market during 2012. Demand in the US and Europe experienced minimal change compared with 2011. IBO expects similar results for the separations market for 2013. The sector is forecast to grow slightly better than last year, driven by a pickup in initial systems sales and continued growth in aftermarket and service.

Agilent and Waters are the market leaders. Thermo Fisher Scientific is the leader in ion chromatography (IC). The pharmaceutical industry is the largest end-user segment of the separations market. Pharmaceutical spending has slowed in recent years, but the industry continues to invest in technologies to accelerate the drug discovery and development process. In addition, outsourcing has become a common practice, which drives growth for CROs. Opportunities in downstream discovery applications and the expansion of quality control operations have fueled growth for separation techniques. In addition, applications in biotechnology and clinical labs are fueling growth. Demand from academia and government was particularly slow in 2012, but the public sector is projected to rebound this year.

Separations sales are expected to increase in all geographic segments in 2013, led by demand in China, particularly in the pharmaceutical, biotech and CRO sectors. Latin America is also forecast to post solid growth for the year due to strong growth for biotech and food applications.

The HPLC market accounted for the largest segment of the total separations market in 2012. Demand for UHPLC systems, particularly systems integrated with MS systems, and superficially porous particle columns are expected to fuel growth in 2013. GC sales are expected to increase 2.7% in 2013, driven by solid growth in Asia Pacific.

IC is heavily focused on industrial and environmental markets. The market is forecast to grow 5.1% in 2013 driven by strong growth in Japan and China.

The low pressure LC (LPLC) market is led by GE Healthcare and Bio-Rad Laboratories. The total LPLC market accounted for 5.5% of the overall separations market in 2012. In 2013, it is forecast to increase 6.0% driven by growth in biotech.

The demand for capillary electrophoresis (CE) is projected to increase 5.2% this year, driven by solid sales growth for microfluidic-based CE systems and clinical applications. Flash chromatography and TLC sales are expected to increase 6.2% and 4.2% in 2013, respectively, fueled by demand for consumables and chemicals. The SFC market is expected to post double-digit growth this year as a result of new analytical SFC systems that were introduced last year. The SFC market is led by Waters and JASCO.

 Bar Graph: 2011–2014 Total Separations Instrumentation Market

   2011 2012 2013 2014

 $ Millions 7,393 7,574 7,819 8,107

 Separations Instrumentation 2012–2013

         2012 Market Share     2013 Growth Rate

 HPLC           59.0%                 2.6%    

 GC             22.6%                 2.7%

 IC              6.0%                 5.1%

 LPLC            5.5%                 6.0%

 CE              3.6%                 5.2%

 Flash           1.6%                 6.2%

 TLC             0.9%                 4.2%

 SFC             0.8%                11.5%

 Total         100.0%                 3.2%

 Pie Chart: 2012 Separations Suppliers’ Market Shares

 Agilent         21%

 Waters          16%

 Thermo          13%

 Shimadzu         9%

 Sigma-Aldrich    6%

 Other           35%

 Separations Instrumentation Market Leaders

 HPLC   Waters, Agilent

 GC     Agilent, Shimadzu

 LPLC   GE Healthcare, Bio-Rad Laboratories

 IC     Thermo, Metrohm

 CE     Agilent, Beckman Coulter (Danaher)

 Flash  Teledyne ISCO, Biotage

 TLC    Camag, Agilent

 SFC    Waters, JASCO

 Pie Chart: 2012 Separations Market by Product Type

 Aftermarket      47%

 Initial Systems  40%

 Service          13%