Electronics suppliers can expect healthy expansion in the global market for AC-DC and DC-DC power supplies from now until 2018, according to a new report from market researcher IHS Technology. The firm predicts the global power supply market to grow by $3.5 billion over the next four years, with 4.6% market growth expected in 2014.
In its report, The World Market for AC-DC & DC-DC Merchant Power Supplies, IHS says power supply market revenue will expand to $25.1 billion in 2018, up from $21.6 billion in 2014. This represents a hefty increase compared to the last few years, when market revenue grew by less than $1 billion. The nearly 5% growth expected this year will be followed by similar growth in 2015 and 2016, the company says.
“The markets for most applications that use a power supply are now growing again after a couple of gloomy years, with emerging applications such as power supplies for light-emitting diode (LED) lighting and media tablets leading the way,” Jonathon Eykyn, power supply and storage component analyst for IHS, said in a statement announcing the new report. “Demand for power supplies for these two applications alone is projected to grow by more than $2.5 billion from 2014 to 2018, but other power supply markets—such as telecommunications, data communications and industrial—are also projected to provide growth opportunities to power supply vendors in the coming years.”
Also driving growth is the reinstatement of many projects that had been cancelled or postponed in recent years due to economic concerns. Continued growth of data centers—to cope with the rise of cloud computing and the Internet of Things—is also fueling demand for power supplies, as is continued demand for cell phones and tablet computers.
According to IHS data, manufacturer Delta Electronics is the largest supplier of merchant power supplies, followed by Emerson and Lite-On. Manufacturers Salcomp and Mean Well saw the most growth in market share in 2013, according to the report.
