Research by US-based IT Strategies estimates that worldwide ink revenues will rise by 11% to 18bn ($32bn) in 2009. The figure is currently 11.5bn.

Revenues in the overall wide- and narrow-format ink-jet market are likely to grow by 7% by 2009 to 33bn. Worldwide revenues are currently 24bn.

"Consumables are the profit engine of the printer business but, in contrast, hardware revenues are flat," said IT Strategies consulting partner Marco Boer.

The research follows last year's significant developments in the market. Fuji tied up a 123m deal to buy Sericol, the specialist UK ink manufacturer. Agfa launched a range of products, HP acquired Scitex Vision, and paper firms including PaperlinX made a play in the wide-format market.