PRC was a strong contributor to APeJ becoming the top inkjet market in the world as we saw a strong growth in the volume of inkjet shipment from the 6.18 online shopping festival, which posted a 17.8% YOY growth versus the same time last year. The shipment volume for laser printers continue to stay strong in the PRC market due to the rapid expansion of the small-medium business (SMB) segment.

On the other hand, the Southeast Asia sub-region, which currently contributes the highest inkjet shipment volume in APeJ, continued to see a strong shift from ink cartridge to ink tank from the end users in the second quarter of 2017.

This shift is brought upon by the low cost per page benefit of ink tank and aggressive promotions from vendors. In fact, in 2017Q2, the ink tank to ink cartridge ratio had reached an all-time high and had finally crossed the 50% mark to make Southeast Asia a truly ink tank dominant market.

India had suffered a decline in both inkjet and laser this 2017Q2, declining by -6.8% and -3.8% YOY, respectively. This was largely due to market’s apprehension on the GST implementation. There was a high level of destocking in the channels, where they refused to take in any further shipment from vendors in order to avoid a high level of leftover stock when the GST gets implemented.

“Taking over USA in terms of inkjet unit shipment this quarter shows that the demand for inkjet in the region is becoming stronger than ever. Concurrently, we are also seeing an increase in demand for ink tank printers as the ratio for ink tank vs ink cartridge had reached an all time high of 38%. More businesses are buying ink tank to take advantage of the low printing cost,” says Yexi Liao, Market Analyst of IDC Asia/Pacific’s Image Printing and Document Solutions (IPDS) team.

“The laser market also see a stronger growth within higher value speed segments of 30+ ppm (printer per minute), as some vendors are struggling with profitability within the low-end speed segments of 1-30 ppm and want to shift up in order to help them protect their profit margin,” according to Liao.