Silver inks market to recover by 2015

NanoMarkets analysts have released an updated report of the conductive silver inks market.

Sales of such inks will see declines for the next few years before the market begins a recovery in 2011, it says, and projects that the market will achieve US$1.6 billion in revenue by 2015.

Several factors are pointing to a decline in the silver inks business. Demand for consumer electronics and motor vehicles has declined and will remain depressed for several quarters.

The firm has also lowered its expectations for the RFID sector as the current environment and more conservative actions taken by companies will slow the deployment of item-level RFID and with it the need for silver inks for both antennas and chip contacts.

The company still expects to see a substantial business for silver inks emerging from the solar panel metallisation, especially as energy prices begin to increase again.

Lower silver prices will help silver conductive inks manufacturers stave off competition from copper and other inks in the near future.

However, as inflationary pressures resume in 2010, the company expects renewed impetus for alternative approaches to conductive inks.