Most AM companies which report public information noted during their Q1 releases that they expected Q2 to be much more heavily impacted by COVID-19.

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They weren’t wrong.

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Shutdowns and uncertainties didn’t actually hit Western firms until March. But it’s no secret that the metal additive manufacturing industry was already in the midst of tougher times throughout 2019 — we’ve written about it pretty extensively at SmarTech. Most of the ongoing metal AM slump story involved hardware.

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Metal powder sales have remained excellent. Total shipments of powders for the year in 2019 grew an estimated 37 percent compared to 2018, to an estimated 2,650 tons shipped to AM users. SmarTech estimates that in the first quarter of 2019 alone -just three months -there was as much powder sold and shipped to users as there was in all of 2014 combined; about 550 […]

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