EIT RawMaterials supported start-up Metalshub will enable a transparent and liquid digital market for 3D printing metal powders

The 3D metals printing market is divided into two major categories, filaments and metal powders. In 2017 metal powders accounted for 94.5% and filaments for 5.5% of the market shares. In 2018 the metal powder volume was around 1,100 mt (USD 438 million) and is expected to grow fast with a CAGR 33.5% (CAGR 31.7%) reaching a market volume of 7,900 mt (USD 2,858 million) by 2025.

The filament volume was around 84.2 mt (USD 25.7 million) and similar to the metal powder is expected to grow very rapidly with a CAGR 27.8% (CAGR 33.9%) reaching a market volume 445 mt (USD 188.9 million) by 2025.*

Image courtesy of Metalshub

Currently, the market supply chain for raw materials for 3D metals printing is a quite fast-growing but also very opaque market, the latter is mainly due to its large fragmentation. Both buyers and sellers have limited access to the other market side and many intermediaries such as traders, agents, and local distributors are involved in the trading process. This increases costs, price volatility, limits transparency and reduces the efficiency of the industry and its growth.

EIT RawMaterials Innovation Community Project Partnership

Metalshub has received support for this Innovation project from EIT RawMaterials – Innovation Hub CLC West with the ultimate goal of providing a fully digital marketplace for buying and selling metallic raw materials for 3D metals printing.

Image courtesy of Metalshub

The producers (sellers) of those materials will be able to access directly a large network of manufacturers of 3D printed parts without using third-party distributors and traders. This will reduce considerably the customer acquisition efforts and sales costs.On the other hand, the consumers (buyers) will have direct access to a big and diversified supplier network and also the ability to buy directly from producers and not only intermediaries. This will help not only larger companies but especially SMEs to transparently source metals at competitive prices.

By providing a B2B digital marketplace for metal powders, Metalshub will create the basis for further innovation and industry growth, provide the crucial transparency and liquidity to the industry, as well as become a reliable source of key market insights to support planning processes and further investments.

In a nutshell, Metalshub will enable a transparent and liquid digital market for 3D printing metal powders as it is now successfully doing it for metals and ferroalloys.

For more information:

*Hoovers, Factiva, NCBI, 3Ders, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, Additive Manufacturing Society of India, Company Annual Reports, Company Websites, Grand View Research.