Global card market reaches $17 billion in 2011, up nearly 14% from 2010
Staff
Electronics CELThe global card market reached $17 billion in 2011, jumping almost 14% from 2010, according to the 2011 International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA) Global Card Market Statistics Report.
Higher value chip-based cards used in mobile phones and other electronic transactions as well as expanded production in the Asia-Pacific region led market growth as more than 30 billion cards were manufactured worldwide in 2011, adds the report.
However, the report points out, the global card market will experience somewhat slower growth through 2015 and traditional magnetic cards will continue to be replaced by chip while smartphone apps and NFC technology will impact growth beyond 2015.
“The global plastic card market remains very strong in the mobile phone, financial, government/health and gift card market segments and we can expect continued growth in these segments for the next few years,” says Al Vrancart, ICMA Industry Advisor and Founder Emeritus.
Other key highlights of the report include:
- Mobile phone cards continued to dominate the global market in 2011 (15.2% or 4,639,000 units) in volume and value, followed closely by financial transaction cards (15.2% or 4,628,000 units).
- The gap between the volume of traditional and chip-based cards manufactured was smallest in the Asia-Pacific region (51.7% and 48.3%) and Europe (54.2% and 45.8%).
- Asia-Pacific leads the regions as the largest producer of cards, with more than 10 billion cards manufactured in 2011. North America was second with 8.3 billion units manufactured. Europe is in the third position with 4.9 billion units manufactured and Middle East Africa in fourth with 4.2 billion cards. Latin America stayed close to last year’s figures at 1.9 billion units manufactured.
