Editors' Column
The Market for Analytical Instruments "The 1983-86-Market for Analytical Instruments," just published by Centcom, Ltd., advertising management for A N A L Y T I C A L C H E M I S T R Y , pro
vides a number of predictions on how the analytical instrument market will fare over the next three years. Although the analytical instrument business was a "fine growth market" during the 1970s, with sales growing faster than inflation, the recession has taken a toll in the past two years. Unit volume has declined for a number of manufacturers, as has dollar sales vol ume. According to the report, recovery has not yet come for the instrument companies: "Analytical instrument sales will lag the '83 recovery by about six months, as managers make sure it is for real before committing their
companies to new R&D or new plant equipment expenditures." According to the report, the only analytical instrument that will experi ence an annual sales decrease (6%) in the next three years is the dispersive infrared (IR) spectrometer. All other instrument types will see annual sales increases of.1-30% between 1983 and 1986. Particularly high sales growth (30% annually) is expected for ion chromatographs due to rapidly expanding ap plications. The report claims that ion chromatography may even begin to compete with atomic absorption spec trometry and plasma emission spec trometry for some applications. The predicted drop in dispersive IR spectrometer sales is attributable to
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the increasing popularity of Fourier transform-IR spectrometry (FT-IR), as reported in the September FOCUS column {Anal. Chem. 1983,55, 1054-56 A). "Marked progress in com puters and data display hardware as well as in programming, with addi tional gains in engineering of the in terferometers, has established FT-IR on a very strong growth curve," the re- · port explains. Gross U.S. sales of FT-IRs, which will increase 25% an nually, are predicted to exceed gross sales of dispersive IRs by 1984. Significant growth also is expected for polarographic/voltammetric in struments and for energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometers; U.S. sales of both will increase 17% each year be tween 1983 and 1986. Gross sales of liquid chromatographic (LC) instru ments, already significantly higher than for any other instrument type ($105 million in 1982), should main tain this lead with comfortable mar gins in the years ahead. A predicted 15% annual increase in U.S. sales of LCs over the next three years will mean a $275 million market for the in struments in 1986. The next largest predicted 1986 sales figure for a single instrument type is $175 million for gas chromatographs (GCs), fully $100 million less than the anticipated figure for sales of LCs. The report predicts a 14% annual increase in GC sales in the U.S. from 1983 to 1986. Significant annual U.S. sales growth also is seen for plasma emission spec trometry (15%), scanning electron mi croscopy (14%), nuclear magnetic res onance spectrometry (12%), thermal analysis (12%), fluorescence spectrom etry (11%), mass spectrometry (10%), and macro-elemental analysis (10%). Overall, total U.S. sales of analytical instruments will grow at an average rate of 11%. "The 1983-86 Market for Analytical Instruments" was prepared by Alpert & Sutcliffe of Stamford, Conn. For further information on the study, write to Centcom, Ltd., GSB Bldg., Suite 425,1 Belmont Ave., Bala Cynwyd, Pa. 19004. Stuart A. Borman
