Ovum Reveals Global Optical Components Market Sales At US$1.6bn

The global optical components (OC) market posted revenues of US$1.6bn in 2Q12, keeping pace with last quarter’s revenue level according to global market research firm Ovum.

In a new market share alert*, the independent telecoms analyst firm found that the upturn in 1Q12 was largely due to the resumption of manufacturing capacity to near what it was before the Thai floods. The 2Q12 posting is largely due to weaker than expected demand. The OC market was flat compared to 1Q12 mainly due to the macroeconomic uncertainty.

Daryl Inniss, Practice Leader Components Telecoms at Ovum and author of the market share alert, said: “Among the top 10 suppliers, Oclaro and Neophotonics led the market with 17 percent sequential expansion.  Meanwhile market leader Finisar contracted by 8 percent, the largest sequential decline among the top 10. Growth came from North America and Japan which helped the performance. However, suppliers cited continued weakness in Europe and now in China since the March quarter.”

Traffic is increasing and hence products that support higher transmission bandwidth are preferentially required. This means high demand for 10, 40 and 100 Gbps data rates and represents the growth areas cited most often during quarterly calls. “Strong client and line-side demand was reported for the 40 and 100G while the tuneable XFP appeared to post a weaker revenue performance than in previous quarters,” Inniss added.

According to the study, in 2Q12 Oclaro reported closing its merger with Opnext and also posted the strongest growth among the top 10 suppliers, partially due to the recovery from the Thai floods. This is indeed a positive outlook for the combined company which is advantageously positioned to deliver numerous competitive products.

Inniss commented, “The long-term outlook for optics is positive as bandwidth demand continues to grow. The market is back to manufacturing capacity from the Thai Floods, with Fabrinet opening its new manufacturing facility and has returned to pre-flood capacity.”

Ovum sees the market expanding by about 4 percent sequentially in 3Q12 and forecasts full-year revenues of US$6.6bn for 2012,” Inniss concluded.

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*Market Share Alert: 2Q12 Global OC