New Data Shows Asia Pacific Holds Steady as the Fastest Growing and Largest Regional Card Market
The International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA), a global trade association for card manufacturers, personalizers, issuers and suppliers, has released its 2014 Global Card Market and Personalization and Fulfillment Statistics Reports. The comprehensive reports are a source of valuable card industry data generated from primary and secondary research and statistical modeling done by Al Vrancart, ICMA Founder Emeritus and Industry Advisor.
“The global card industry continues to provide growth opportunities in several geographic regional and vertical markets,” says Vrancart. “The reports reveal a 1.0% global card unit growth and a 5.6% dollar growth in 2014. Adoption of more expensive chip cards continues to drive global growth with 31.7% of all cards now having a chip, which represents 84.9% of the value of cards manufactured. The outlook for 2015 and beyond is for continued robust global dollar growth and modest card unit growth.”
The reports examine five regional markets including North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East/Africa (MEA) and Asia Pacific. Within these regions, the Card Market report analyzes card units manufactured in 12 vertical market segments: Prepaid Phone, SIM Mobile Phone, Financial, Gift, Government/Health, Retail & Gas, Transportation, Loyalty/Promotional, ID/Membership, Access Control, Unprinted Blanks, and Other.
Highlights from the card market report include:
- The card industry is growing, with 34.8 billion card units manufactured last year, a 1% increase over 2013.
- A 5.6% increase of global card dollar market value was reported over the previous year, totaling $17 billion.
- Asia Pacific is the leading region in card production with over 12 billion card units manufactured and over $7 billion in dollar market value.
- North America follows with slightly over nine billion cards produced.
- Europe emerged as the second largest dollar market value with nearly $4.3 billion.
Highlights from the personalization and fulfillment market report include:
- The global card industry, personalized and fulfilled 30.4 billion cards in 2014.
- Asia Pacific ranks as the largest regional market for personalization and fulfillment with more than 11 billion cards.
- North America is the second regional market with 7.5 billion.
- The industry personalized and fulfilled $6.9 billion in card services, which is a 7 percent increase over 2013.
- 7.8 billion units produced are for global prepaid phone cards.
The global card manufacturing industry is valued at $17 billion and the personalization and fulfillment services market is valued at $6.9 billion.
The report is available to ICMA members on the ICMA website at www.icma.com. Non-members may purchase the report for $1,500. ICMA membership information can be found on the ICMA website or by calling (609) 799-4900.
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About ICMA
Based in Princeton Junction, New Jersey, the International Card Manufacturing Association is a trade organization of card manufacturers, personalizers, suppliers and vendors. With more than 240 members globally ICMA serves as a resource for industry issues including the production, technology, application, security and environmental aspects of plastic cards. More information is available at www.icma.com.