Artificial intelligence, energy challenges, climate change and new blockbuster drugs (e.g., GLP-1) are key drivers for the lab and process market. However, the uncertainty of policies of newly elected administrations favoring deglobalization and deregulation have the potential to cause disruption, both in the analytical instruments industry and macroeconomically. As a result, our outlook for 2025 is
The life science and analytical instrument markets showed continued slow recovery in the third quarter of 2024, as instrument sales and the Chinese economy both improved.
Since April of this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected a consistent picture of the global economy, forecasting GDP growth of 3.2% in 2024 and 2025. However, in its October 2024 World Economic Outlook (WEO): Policy Pivot, Rising Threats, the IMF reports revisions to the outlook for a number of economies as well as changes in policy the institution deems necessary for “a smooth landing” and to increase growth potential.
For leading international publicly held life science and analytical instrument companies, the second quarter of 2024 showed signs of improvement, with some firms reporting results slightly better than expected.
In its July 2024 World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update: The Global Economy in a Sticky Spot, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stuck with its global growth estimates as forecast in April’s WEO: Steady but Slow: Resilience Amid Divergence, with GDP predicted to gain 3.2% in 2024 and 3.3% in 2025. Activity varied across economies at the beginning of 2024, with many countries experiencing higher growth than had been expected, owing in part to increased world trade, attributable to strong technology exports from Asia. Domestic consumption ramped up in China, and the services sector improved in Europe. In contrast, curbed consumption and negative net trade slowed US growth, which had been outperforming expectations. In Japan, a New Year’s Day earthquake caused a short period of supply disruption and the shutdown of automobile production.
As a challenging macroeconomic environment continues, leading international publicly held life science and analytical companies reported revenue for the first quarter of 2024 that was generally down in the low to high single digits, against tough comparisons of strong growth a year ago. This was all roughly as expected.
For Q1 2024, the Lab Analytical and Life Science markets continued to contract due to softness in CapEx, adjusting for heightened demand over the past few years. Conversely, the Process Analytical market experienced high single-digit growth in the first quarter.
PAI/2024 is the latest edition of the PAI report series, providing worldwide product forecasts for 2022-2028 (by year). The product forecasts are shown by major end-user market segment and by geographic region. The report identifies the leading suppliers in each of the technology categories including liquid analyzers, photometers/spectroscopy, oxygen, gas chromatography, mass spectrometers, moisture analyzers, advanced analyzers and other continuous process analyzers. In 2023, the process analytical instruments (PAI) market accounted for $5.9 billion and is experiencing robust growth, fueled by new hydrocarbon processing projects, particularly in Asia-Pacific. Sustainability, carbon capture and alternative fuels continue to be industry drivers for analyzer companies.
Nearly seven months after the start of the US fiscal year (FY) 2024, the US federal government finally has a budget, with the second set of twelve appropriations bills signed into law by President Biden on March 23. These annual bills, which fund the government through September 30, 2024, provide $194.3 for research and development (R&D) funding, a cut of about $5 billion (2.7%) compared to last year, when a substantial increase of 10% had been appropriated. These cuts occurred following spending limits imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.
Facing a challenging macroeconomic environment, most leading international publicly held life science and analytical instrument companies reported sales declines in the mid-single digits for the fourth quarter of 2023 and drops in the low single-digits for the full year—all against tough comparisons of strong growth from the previous year. In short, 2023 was a year when the pandemic tailwinds became headwinds.