Laboratory Instrumentation Market Forecast Brightens After Flat 2023 

/in , /by

SDi is proud to announce the recent publication of the latest edition of our flagship report, the SDi Global Assessment Report 2024. An invaluable resource for all participants and observers of the laboratory instrumentation industry, the ‘Global’ is the gold standard in market estimates and future forecasting. As the market experiences strong fluctuations and, in some cases, changes in trajectory, in response to macroeconomic and geopolitical forces, shifts in funding, trends in research, and exciting advances in technologies and the product landscape, the insights provided by this report are more important than ever in guiding industry participants as they adjust their strategies and resources to adapt and compete in a changing market. 

2023 was a challenging year for the analytical and life science instrumentation industry. Total market demand reached $83 billion, which represents growth of just 0.5% over the previous year. Various dynamics converged, leading to declines for several key technology groups, offsetting gains for others, with a net effect of flat overall market growth.  

Among the most influential factors impacting the market was the funding difficulties experienced by the biotech industry, as increasingly cautious investors pulled back, mostly affecting early-stage, small to mid-sized biotech organizations. The life science instrumentation market, which has long been the dominant driver of growth for the overall market, experienced a decline in 2023 as a direct consequence of the weakened biotech industry. Other technologies that are heavily used in the pharma/bio sector also suffered declines, including chromatography. 

Risk-weariness among investors also reflected the greater economic difficulties facing China, where a sustained post-pandemic recovery has failed to materialize and the property sector has faced a financial crisis. All of this led to a major decline in demand for analytical instrumentation in China, which also slowed growth in many surrounding countries of the Asia Pacific region.  

On the bright side, the overall global analytical instrumentation market still managed to exhibit growth, however slight, thanks to growth in other areas. For instance, the industrial sector benefited from the accelerating development and production of battery technologies, needed to produce electric vehicles and store excess generated energy as the world transitions to more sustainable power generation. 

While the challenges of 2023 will linger and continue to affect the market, we expect that they will be overcome. Pharma/Bio sector activity is already showing signs of improvement, with biotech IPO proceeds in the last several months rebounding to pre-pandemic levels. Likewise, China’s economy appears to be improving moderately, with faster than expected GDP growth in Q1 2024 thanks to monetary stimulus measures, though economists are still skeptical that China will meet its stated full-year growth goal of 5.2% for 2024. While this is nowhere near the pace of China’s pre-pandemic growth, meeting this goal would nonetheless put the country ahead of many other economies. 

With the challenges and changes in the market landscape, the wealth of information and insights provided by the SDi Global Assessment Report is trusted by the leading suppliers in the industry to help them make strategic decisions. Building on the success of last year’s bestselling edition, this new report features market sizing for 2023, forecasts through 2028, and includes detailed market data segmentations, competitive landscape analysis, and growth rates for 84 individual instrumentation and equipment technologies, including a newly added market brief on the emerging Spatial Omics technique. The market briefs are organized into 10 major chapters according to the nature of the instrument design or similarities in how laboratories use the technology: 

  • Chromatography 
  • Mass Spectrometry 
  • Atomic Spectroscopy 
  • Molecular Spectroscopy 
  • Life Science Instrumentation 
  • Surface Science 
  • Materials Characterization 
  • Lab Automation & Informatics 
  • Sample Preparation Techniques 
  • Lab Equipment 

SDi’s report is designed for general management and marketing executives within the field of analytical and life science instruments or with a vested interest in this field. Those involved in a particular technology or product line can obtain up-to-date statistics in their areas of interest and gain insights into related or tangential areas, through the purchase of individual market briefs for any of the 84 techniques in the report. Those concerned with more than one segment, or the whole industry, can use the report to evaluate markets, the competitive landscape, or identify opportunities and acquisition targets. The report’s usefulness is not limited to those already in the industry – anyone thinking of entering or investing in the lab instrument business, initiating a buy rating on a security, performing due diligence, or deciding to acquire or develop a business internally will also benefit from this information.