Thermal paper is fine product that is coated with chemicals and that changes the colour when exposed to heat. The product is increasingly used in ATMs, gaming equipment, lottery machines, credit card terminals, printers, office supplies and movie ticket machines. Shifting preference from conventional cash registers to point of sales terminals which are used in hospitality, warehouse and retail industries is projected to remain a major driving factor over the next eight years.
Over the few years, thermal paper products are increasingly used for displaying superior qualities such as extended durability and lightweight in the printing industry. Expansion of food & beverage industry in emerging markets of China, India, and Middle East in light of growing domestic consumption of convenience foods along with rising penetration of supermarkets at domestic level is expected to promote the importance of label in the near future. Moreover, rising demand for pharmaceutical packaging in light of stringent regulations imposed by numerous governments including the U.S. and Japan for labelling standards has played an important role in providing upswing to label standards. Aforementioned trends aimed at improving market growth for label materials are expected to have a strong impact over the next eight years.
Increasing usage of Radio-frequency identification (RFID) in the healthcare industry on account of being an inventory control device is expected to promote the usage of thermal paper over the next eight years. However, rising expenditure for the development of online RFID systems by pharma companies may reduce the application in the near future.
Expansion of casino gaming industry in Macau and Singapore as a result of growing tourism sector at the domestic level is expected to increase the number of video lottery terminals and casinos which are likely to fuel thermal paper demand. In addition, increasing number of casinos in Italy owing to campaigns launched by domestic gaming associations for promoting new investments is expected to induce high growth rate for paper products. Other applications included office charts, bus tickets, office supplies and fax receipts. These applications are expected to witness low growth rate in light of substitution threat from products such as synthetic and conventional paper.
Thermal paper is majorly used in POS terminals on account of providing good barcode scan ability, moisture resistance, and high temperature stability. POS terminals use thermal paper for transactions in retail, hospital, entertainment, and warehouse owing to their ability of exhibiting high time span as compared to ordinary conventional counterparts. Increasing adoption of advanced POS for offering high durability as compared to has resulted in decreasing in total cost of ownership (TCO). As a result, POS terminals are expected to be used as a favourable choice among small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) over the forecast period. The aforementioned favourable trend in POS market is expected to play an important role in increasing the usage of the product over the forecast period. However, rising usage of mobile POS in developed markets including the U.S. and Germany in light of new product launches by telecom manufacturers including Apple may hamper the market growth over the next eight years.
The technical advancement about the uses of thermal spray coatings in trends which are disposed to the external contamination and moisture is likely to drive growth. However, the development of e-commerce platforms and concept of electronic receipts or e-receipts turn into another possibility as progressively huge amounts of retail selling and business transactions take place online. As there is growing uses of automated handheld devices and bank cards for everyday purchases. It is predictable that e-receipts will slowly take the place of thermal paper receipts as the standard document for proving all kinds of transactions.
Key industry participants include Oji Holdings, Koehler, Nakagawa Appvion, Jujo Thermal, Appvion. In July 2015, Appvion launched new linerless specific grades of the products which are intended for use in logistics labels, industrial labels, weigh scale labels and portable printing. This product launch is anticipated to increase the company’s market share in labelling applications, where linerless grades are required. Finland-based Jujo Thermal announced an investment of USD 7.7 Million in April 2015, for enhancing the productivity and incorporating technology at its Kauttua Mill, Finland. New product launches and expansion of production capacity are expected to remain critical success factors for the market.
