ICMA Survey Shows Card Manufacturing Industry Remains Resilient
19.4 Billion Cards Were Manufactured Globally in 2008
Company Supplied -- Graphic Arts Online, October 26, 2009

PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ-October 26, 2009-The International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA), a global non-profit association for card manufacturers, personalizers, issuers and suppliers, announced the results of its annual Global Market Survey. The survey measures the number of cards manufactured by geographic and market segment volumes in units and dollars.
The survey measured results from 2008 and revealed factors, such as the recession, have affected the global card market. However, 19.4 billion cards were manufactured globally, indicating a slight increase of .06 percent over 2007 and the dollar market also increased by 4.3 percent, up from $9.3 billion in 2007 to $9.7 billion in 2008.
The survey also revealed North America held its position as the largest producer of cards, with more than 8.8 billion cards manufactured in 2008. The Asia Pacific region continues to gain global share with 4.9 billion units manufactured. Europe remained in the third position with 4.1 billion units manufactured, followed by Latin America with one billion units manufactured and the Middle East/Africa (MEA) with half a billion units manufactured.
The regions surveyed were North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and MEA. The products surveyed were plastic cards of all thicknesses including traditional cards-with and without magnetic stripe, and chip cards that include contact, contactless and combi-cards for diverse applications such as financial, identification, telecom and transit.
Also analyzed, regional demographics and card-specific statistics such as market share for value-based secure cards, financial hologram cards, other cards, those cards that do not have monetary value, and financial other cards, those cards that do not use a hologram.
The survey results are available to ICMA members via the ICMA website at www.icma.com. Non-ICMA members can purchase the survey for $1500 and obtain information on becoming a member of ICMA by contacting Lynn McCullough at 609-799-4900, lmccullough@icma.com or by visiting ICMA's website at www.icma.com.
Company Supplied
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