Regeneration Times Report/IDC recently released Sri Lanka's first-quarter HCP market shipments. Due to the severe economic crisis, Sri Lanka shipped 30,000 units this quarter, down 2.4% quarter-on-quarter and down 25.2% year-on-year.

Due to insufficient inventory, the inkjet printer business decreased by 37.1% year-on-year and 19.6% month-on-month, mainly due to delayed shipments by Canon and Epson. Also, demand for home printing has plummeted as residents grappled with soaring inflation and shortages of essentials like food, fuel and electricity.

The laser printer (including copier) segment declined 15% year over year. Also for economic reasons, many businesses, especially SMEs, have scaled down their operations, resulting in a drop in demand for laser printers. However, in the copier segment, Canon recorded a year-on-year growth of 26.4% as Canon significantly increased shipments.



In terms of brands, the top five are HP, Canon, Brother, Epson and Toshiba.

HP (excluding Samsung) has a local market share of 62.5%. HP overtook Canon to become the No. 1 brand in the local market with an overall year-on-year growth of 35.7% due to a 64.1% year-on-year growth in laser printers. Among them, black and white printers have the fastest growth. In addition, HP also achieved 8.3% year-over-year growth due to the market gap created by other vendors.

Canon's shipments declined sequentially in the quarter, with an overall market share of 22.3%. Among them, the inkjet part decreased by 77.6% month-on-month due to inventory and supply reasons. In the laser field, Canon's market share was 28.1%, down 57.0% year-on-year. On the other hand, in the field of laser copiers, Canon increased by 102.5% month-on-month and maintained its second position in the copier field with a market share of 26.5%.

Brother replaced Epson in third place in shipments this quarter, with a market share of 5.2%. But the company's market share fell 25.% year over year due to production and supply challenges. In the inkjet segment, Brother ranked fourth in the home market with a 5.5 percent share.

Epson's market share in Sri Lanka is 5.%. In the inkjet segment, Epson overtook Canon in the quarter to take second place with a 13.3 percent market share.

Toshiba, in fifth place with a 4.4% market share, posted 11.9% year-on-year growth in the quarter.

Chip shortages and increased logistics costs will continue to affect the supply of local printers and may lead to higher prices, according to IDC. Suppliers are not expected to face these issues until at least the end of the year, but the recovery of the Sri Lankan printer market will slow further amid the current economic situation.