Global Optical Coatings Market Size, Share, Market Research and Industry Forecast Report, 2019-2025 (Includes Business Impact of COVID-19)

                                          
Industry Insights, Market Size, CAGR, High-Level Analysis: Global Optical Coatings Market


The global optical coatings market size was valued at USD 14.0 billion in 2018 and is expected to register a CAGR of 9.1% over the forecast period. Recent technological advancements in the field of optical deposition techniques and fabrication, coupled with rising demand for efficient optical devices in end-use applications, is expected to drive the growth over the forecast period.

Optical coatings are being increasingly used in numerous applications such as architecture, consumer electronics, solar panels, automotive, medical, telecommunication, and military and defense. Rapid growth of the solar PV market, driven by increasing focus on the generation of clean energy, and rising demand for consumer electronics is expected to fuel the market growth over the forecast period.

Reflective coatings are mainly used in construction, telecommunication, and space applications. Growing use of reflective coatings in green buildings for heat retention and reducing energy consumption is expected to drive its demand over the forecast period. In addition, increasing usage of handheld consoles, coupled with rising demand for portable consumer electronics, is expected to propel the market growth over the forecast period.

Price volatility of raw materials is one of the major factors affecting the prices of optical coatings. It leads to a decrease in profitability for manufacturers and increases the market costs of optical coatings, thus restraining market growth. Although prices of metals have witnessed a declining trend over the past few years, sudden variations in prices can lead to a negative impact, thus affecting market growth. Changes in the price of precious metals used for high-end applications, especially gold and platinum, significantly affect the overall cost of the application, thus impacting the demand for optical coatings.

Product Insights of Global Optical Coatings Market

Anti-reflective coatings are thin film optical coatings that consist of multiple layers of coatings with different refractive indexes between each layer. The thickness of every layer is designed to cause self-extinguishing interference for light beam reflected by the surface. This makes it suitable for magnifying lenses, display screens, camera lenses, and eyeglasses wherein they are used on glass and plastic substrates.

In terms of revenue, anti-reflective coatings emerged as the largest product segment and accounted for a share of more than 29.0% in the market in 2018. Growing demand for anti-reflective coatings for the construction of photovoltaic solar panels, automotive displays, windows, and GPS navigation systems is expected to propel the growth of the market over the forecast period.

The conductive coatings product segment is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period owing to large-scale usage in solar panels. Rising emphasis on the development of alternate energy sources, coupled with huge investments in solar energy generation by countries such as India, U.S., and China, is likely to propel the growth in the coming years. Furthermore, increased usage in display windows, solar panels, heaters, LCD fabrication, heads-up display, shielding for radio frequency interference, LED displays, and instrument display windows is anticipated to support the optical coatings market growth over the forecast period.

Application Insights of Global Optical Coatings Market

The consumer electronics segment emerged as the largest application and accounted for over 30.0% of the market in 2018. Rapidly growing demand for smartphones and rising consumer disposable income is anticipated to propel the segment growth over the forecast period. Furthermore, technological advancements in the field of smart televisions and smart consumer devices, including smartwatches and smartphones, is anticipated to positively affect the market over the forecast period. In addition, increased demand for multipurpose devices and growing number of key players are expected to propel the demand for optical coatings over the forecast period.

Infrared and anti-reflective coatings are widely used in the electronics industry owing to rising demand for superior optical display and impact resistance properties. The growing semiconductor industry, coupled with technological advancements, is expected to augment the demand for these optical coatings over the forecast period.

In the automotive industry, it is used in speedometer display owing to high impact resistance and abrasion resistance. Rising use of optical coatings in numerous automobile components including gear knob top, car windows, windshield, and headlight lenses is anticipated to drive the growth of the market over the forecast period. In addition, UV resistant and abrasion resistant coatings are used for components in the automobile industry.

Regional Insights of Global Optical Coatings Market

In terms of revenue, North America was the largest regional market and accounted for over 38.0% of the market in 2018. The growing solar industry in U.S. and focus on developing domestic industries is driving the demand in this region. Increase in U.S. defense budget is creating a strong growth potential for reflective coating products in the aerospace and defense segment.

North America is a major manufacturing hub for mid-scale and small-scale medical equipment companies, which is expected to propel the demand for optical coatings over the forecast period. In addition, strong presence of industries like instrumentation, microelectronics, biotechnology, and software development and advancements in the medical devices sector will ultimately lead to increased demand for optical coatings over the forecast period.
Asia Pacific is expected to witness a significant CAGR of 10.1% in terms of revenue over the forecast period. Rising youth population, coupled with growing demand for consumer electronic products such as mobiles, tablets, cameras, LED screens, video games console, and personal computers, is expected to drive the regional market over the forecast period.

Optical Coatings Market Share Insights

Most of the key players operating in this global market have integrated their raw material production and distribution operations to maintain product quality and expand regional outreach. This provides companies a competitive advantage in the form of cost benefits, thus increasing their profit margin. Companies focus on research and development activities to develop new products to sustain market competition and changing end-user requirements.

Research activities focused on new materials that combine several properties are projected to gain wide acceptance in the industry in the coming years. Some of the prominent companies manufacturing optical coatings are Alluxa, Inc.; Cascade Optical Corporation;Inrad Optics; Schott AG; and PPG Industries Inc.

p2 Segments covered in the report

This report forecasts revenue and volume growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of latest industry trends in each of the sub-segments from 2014 to 2025. For the purpose of this study, this market research report has segmented the global optical coatings market report on the basis of product, application, and region:

Product Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2019 - 2030)

  
Anti-reflective
  
Reflective
  
Filter
  
Conductive
  
Electrochromic
  
Others

Application Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2019 - 2030)

  
Consumer Electronics
  
Solar
  
Medical
  
Architecture
  
Aerospace & Defense
  
Automotive
  
Telecommunication
  
Others