Asia-Pacific Indium Market – Industry Trends and Forecast to 2030

Asia-Pacific Indium Market Analysis and Insights

The Asia-Pacific indium market is expected to gain significant growth in the forecast period of 2023 to 2030. Data Bridge Market Research analyses that the market is growing with a CAGR of 8.2% from 2023 to 2030 and is expected to reach USD 430,903.63 million by 2030. The major factor driving the growth of the indium market is the rising demand for electronic items Increasing popularity of solar panels and usage in dental alloys are expected to propel the Asia-Pacific indium market growth.

Growth in the semiconductor industry and the ability to recycle indium metal are expected to provide opportunities in the Asia-Pacific indium market. However, fluctuations in raw material prices and significant demand and supply gaps are projected to challenge the market growth. The major restraints that may negatively impact the Asia-Pacific indium market are the credible threat of substitutes and environmental and health issues associated with indium.

The Asia-Pacific indium market report provides details of market share, new developments, and the impact of domestic and localized market players, analyses opportunities in terms of emerging revenue pockets, changes in market regulations, products approvals, strategic decisions, product launches, geographic expansions, and technological innovations in the market. To understand the analysis and the market scenario, contact us for an analyst brief, and our team will help you create a revenue-impact solution to achieve your desired goal.

Market Definition

Indium is a metal with various distinctive properties and is a soft silvery-white metal occurring naturally and combined with zinc and some other metals. It has unique properties such as exclusive bonding with cold welding, a high thermal transfer rate, non-metallic substances, reliable properties at cryogenic temperatures, and smoothness.

Asia-Pacific Indium Market Dynamics

This section deals with understanding the market drivers, advantages, opportunities, restraints, and challenges. All of this is discussed in detail below:

Drivers

• Rise in demand for electronic items

The demand for electronic items such as smartphones, tablets, flat panel displays, laptops, and monitors has increased worldwide. Demand for such electronic products is attributed to various reasons, such as new technology development, rising disposable income, and improving living standards have encouraged customers to purchase them. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has flourished the sales of such products as most working employees and students were working and learning from home, respectively. The technological advancements have found their usage in multiple fields, including app development, software, artificial intelligence, personalized healthcare, and robotics, which further have surged the demand for such equipment. In addition, several developing countries are undergoing a digital transformation, further driving the sales of such electronic products.

• Increase in the popularity of solar panels

Sunlight is a renewable energy source. Producing and supplying solar energy is indefinite. Compared to other energy sources, such as fossil fuels, which are non-renewable, the production of solar energy is easier and less costly. Using solar energy does not even contribute to Asia-Pacific warming. Solar architecture, concentrated solar energy, photovoltaic cells, and panels are some examples of solar energy technology.

Indium is a metal used in the production of solar panels. Even though the indium demand has recently been low, it is necessary for heterojunction photovoltaics. Due to their optical transparency, electrical conductivity properties, and chemical resistance to moisture, indium tin oxides are widely used materials in solar panels.

• Usage in dental alloys

Alloys utilized to make dentures mostly have gold, silver, and palladium as their primary metals, with 0.5% to 10% indium added. Dental implants' corrosion resistance and hardness can be considerably increased by using a minimal amount of metal indium. Additionally, dental amalgam fillings frequently include indium. To avoid the filling becoming hazardous, indium helps maintain mercury. Thus, indium helps save individuals from mercury's toxic side effects in dental amalgam fillings.

Opportunities

• Growth in the semiconductor industry

High boiling point, corrosion resistance, and low resistance are a few of the properties of indium, due to which they are used widely in the semiconductor industry. Indium-based compounds such as indium trichloride are well-known for building semiconductor layers such as electronic circuits, lasers, and LEDs. Moreover, indium has applications in high and low-temperature transistors. Indium is also used in solar assembly as semiconductor copper indium gallium selenide. Such high-end application of indium in industries will further create opportunities for increased sales for the products in which the indium is used.

• Ability to recycle indium metal

Due to its performance in semiconductors and optoelectronics, indium has gained increasing attention. Indium is a crucial strategic resource listed as one of the key resources by the European Commission. There are no indium ores of their own; instead, it is predominantly produced from lead and zinc byproducts.

As indium is widely used in LCDs, indium recycling from such LCD panels is performed. The damaged LCDs are collected and further dismantled manually or automatically.

Restraints

• Environmental and health issues associated with indium

Indium has polluted and negatively impacted the environment and our health due to its extensive use in various applications. The amount of indium in the Earth's crust is about 0.052 ppm, and it is normally recovered as a byproduct of the manufacture of zinc and copper because it does not readily form its minerals. The adverse impacts of mining are deforestation, fishery and wildlife habitats, irregular pattern of rainfall, and ecological disruption. In addition to the actual mines, infrastructure constructed to assist mining operations, such as roads, power lines, and railway track, influences animal migration paths and worsen habitat diversity. Such negative environmental impacts restrain the growth of the Asia-Pacific indium market.

• Low concentration in Earth's crust and extraction-related issues

Indium has been a widely accepted metal applied in various fields, such as flat-panel display electronics items, photovoltaic devices, and semiconductor devices. Due to such wide applications, indium is one of the most demanded metals. Inside the Earth's crust, indium is very low in quantity, about 160 ppb by weight. Indium's Asia-Pacific production accounts for as low as 800 tonnes per year. Also, such a low quantity of indium has increased the price of pure indium to hit US $900 per kilogram. Such low production, less concentration in Earth's crust, and high demand for indium from industries have been resisting the growth of the Asia-Pacific indium market.

Challenges

• Fluctuation in raw material prices

Indium is applied daily using products such as LEDs, flat panel devices, solders, solar panels, and many more. However, indium is a byproduct obtained from copper and zinc ores. So it does not have it is own its minerals. Thus, the production price of indium depends upon the demand and prices of the metals obtained from such ores. Also, it is one of the scarcest elements found on the Earth's crust. The prices of indium also vary depending upon the competition of end-users to get it.

 Any new, popular use could significantly change overall demand, which might expand more quickly than available capacity. This could continue for about a decade or more, depending on the time required to dramatically boost production capacity.

• Significant demand and supply gap

A product supply and demand discrepancy is known as a supply and demand gap. As a rare earth metal, indium is one of the rarest found in the Earth's crust. In the case of indium, 95% of production is done from zinc ores processing. Indium production is disadvantaged as it is not occurring in the native state. Indium is found in metal ores such as zinc and tin. Therefore, the indium demand and supply also depend upon other metals like zinc. This gap further leads to volatility in the raw material prices of indium. Such volatility can influence the prices of end products also to get fluctuate.

China produces more than 50% of the world's refined indium. In the past three years, China has produced around 1.000 MT per year of indium and has also stockpiled more than 3.000 MT.

Recent Development

• In December 2022, Umicore and PowerCo, a Volkswagen battery company, extended their collaboration in battery materials. They are exploring a strategic long-term supply agreement to serve PowerCo's future battery Gigafactory for electric vehicles (EVs) in North America. This development will help strengthen the company's operations

Asia-Pacific Indium Market Scope

The Asia-Pacific indium market is categorized based on product and application. The growth amongst these segments will help you analyze major growth segments in the industries and provide the users with a valuable market overview and market insights to make strategic decisions to identify core market applications.

Product

• Primary
• Secondary
• Type III

Based on product, the Asia-Pacific indium market is classified into three segments primary, secondary, and type III.

Application

• Flat Panel Displays
• Semiconductor Materials
• Photovoltaics
• Solders
• Alloys
• Thermal Interface Materials
• Batteries

Based on the application, the Asia-Pacific indium market is classified into seven segments flat panel displays, semiconductor materials, photovoltaics, solders, alloys, thermal interface materials, and batteries.

Asia-Pacific Indium Market Regional Analysis/Insights

The Asia-Pacific indium market is segmented based on product and application.

The countries in the Asia-Pacific indium market are Japan, China, South Korea, India, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia & New Zealand, and the Rest of Asia-Pacific.

China is dominating the Asia-Pacific indium market due to the rise in demand for electronic items.

The country section of the report also provides individual market-impacting factors and regulation changes that impact the market's current and future trends. Data point downstream and upstream value chain analysis, technological trends, porter's five forces analysis, and case studies are some pointers used to forecast the market scenario for individual countries. Also, the presence and availability of Asia-Pacific brands and their challenges faced due to large or scarce competition from local and domestic brands, the impact of domestic tariffs, and trade routes are considered while providing forecast analysis of the country data.   

Competitive Landscape and Asia-Pacific Indium Market Share Analysis

Asia-Pacific indium market competitive landscape provides details by competitors. Details included are company overview, company financials, revenue generated, market potential, investment in research and development, new market initiatives, production sites and facilities, company strengths and weaknesses, product launch, product trials pipelines, product approvals, patents, product width and breadth, application dominance, technology lifeline curve. The above data points provided are only related to the companies focus on the Asia-Pacific indium market.

Some of the prominent participants operating in the Asia-Pacific indium market are Nippon Rare Metal, Inc., Umicore, Teck Resources Limited, Nyrstar, Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. Ahpmat.com. Indium Corporation, Lipmann Walton & Co. Ltd, Zhuzhou Keneng New Material Co., Ltd. Inc., ESPI Metals, AIM Metals & Alloys LP, DOWA Electronics Materials Co., Ltd. and Xinlian Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. among others.

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