Read time: 18 mins.
Key highlights:
- Part of the plan: How the Chinese Government's AM strategy has led to the rise of cheaper alternatives.
- In CONTEXT: Stats from the market intelligence firm portray the impact made so far.
- What to do: With an increase in competition, how should market leaders respond?
This article was first published via the Additive Insight newsletter on August 5th, 2025.
A slow start, some significant progression, and before you know it, the de facto market leader.
China’s rise to becoming a manufacturing powerhouse by the early 21st century turned from a steady ascent to complete dominance. Its trajectory in 3D printing threatens to be similar.
3D printing innovation was first exhibited in China more than thirty years ago, with Feng Tao – the future founder of Eplus3D – leading the development of China’s first selective laser sintering equipment. In 2002, Tao then worked with South China University of Technology to develop the country’s first Selective Laser Melting equipment.
Outside of the walls of these laboratories, barely a tremor. Think of any country in the world with a half-decent manufacturing capacity, and there is this kind of research going on there. There are also people like Dr. Xu Xiaoshu, exports to Western markets who help to develop fundamental pieces of technology, before setting off on their own entrepreneurial journey. Xiaoshu wrote the original software for 3D Systems’ DTM SLS machines prior to setting up Farsoon in 2009.
Upon the foundation of companies and commercialisation of technologies, there was acknowledgement of Xiaoshu’s Farsoon and Tao’s Eplus3D – founded in 2014 – in the Western world (especially since Farsoon has long had teams and facilities based in Europe and North America) but perhaps not the intense focus that exists today.
Tao incorporated the Eplus3D business a year before the Chinese Government launched its Made in China 2025 plan. It was this strategy that kickstarted the additive manufacturing activity in the ‘factory of the world’ and got the heads of competitor markets turning.
A walk of the show floor at TCT Asia – China’s largest AM trade show – in 2015 would return not much more than a selection of ‘me too’ products that replicate what you’d see at a Western event. But by 2018, that show would feature more than 60 different metal 3D printing systems and, post-Covid, it was the AM industry’s second largest show behind Formnext. It could easily take the top spot before the end of the decade.
What was once a ripe market that lagged miles behind now threatens to poke its nose in front, and keep it there. Chinese AM machines are getting bigger than Western counterparts, are just as capable, and usually significantly cheaper.
The Made in China 2025 initiative set out to transform China from a source of cheap labour into a global leader in advanced manufacturing. It has been designed to make China the best at producing parts, products and systems. Ten years in, China is fast becoming just that within the AM space too.
In this Deep Dives newsletter, we’ll explore China’s recent breakthroughs in AM product and application development, concerns around IP and security, and how the Western AM market is responding to the increased competition.
