90% of World's Consumer-Grade 3D Printers Are Made in China, Insiders Say

(Yicai) Jan. 5 -- China produces about 90 percent of consumer-grade 3D printers in the world, mainly in Shenzhen, despite the Chinese market still accounting for only a small part of the global one, according to industry insiders."90 percent of consumer-grade 3D printers worldwide come from China, with 90 percent of those made by Shenzhen-based firms," Ke Shuqiang, co-founder of Snapmaker, told Yicai. The company mainly produces 3D printers in the southern Pearl River Delta region, selling the vast majority overseas, Ke noted.Supply chain and talent advantages provide a competitive edge to consumer-grade 3D printer makers in Shenzhen. In addition, the city's comprehensive software and hardware ecosystem is hard to find anywhere else in the world."Under the same conditions, Chinese manufacturers significantly outperform their European and US peers in terms of innovation speed and cost control capabilities," Chen Bo, co-founder of Zhinengpai Technology, said to Yicai."Consumer-grade 3D printers from foreign brands are at least twice as expensive as similar products from Chinese brands," Chen noted. "For example, a product we sell for USD500 would cost around USD2,000 from a foreign brand."Before Chinese manufacturers entered the 3D printer market, the price of consumer-grade machines used to be USD3,000 to USD5,000 per unit, Chen pointed out. Zhinengpai's revenue was around CNY1.6 billion (USD219.2 million) in 2024, with overseas markets making up 90 percent of the total."Shenzhen is home to renowned tech companies such as Huawei Technologies, Tencent Holdings, and DJI, making it easy to find software and hardware talents," Chen said. "People here also have a strong interest in projects with profit potential. Any idea can be transformed into a product through low-cost and rapid experimentation."In addition, Shenzhen is the biggest cross-border e-commerce export hub, making it another reason why 3D printer makers settle there, according to Chen, who added that integrating software supporting 15 different languages, universal components, and large-scale production have brought further cost advantages to these companies.Product innovation is bringing new advantages to Chinese 3D printer manufacturers, Chen said. "As the number of players decreased through mergers and acquisitions, those who survived are growing larger and accumulating more resources, accelerating research and development."Leading companies in the industry can achieve product iteration twice a year, whereas foreign brands take two to three years to launch a new 3D printer, Chen pointed out. The performance of China-made consumer-grade machines has also surpassed that of foreign brands, which is not the case just for one or two firms, but for the entire industry, Chen said.Although the United States remains the world's largest market for consumer-grade 3D printers and is home to industry giant 3D Systems, it is unlikely that new competitive manufacturers of consumer-grade products will emerge in the country, according to Ke.Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev