Catastrophe of Latin America, managing merely 6.5% of the global oxygen concentrator market: Actual Market Research

Brazil has the world's second-highest Covid death toll with more than 221,000 fatalities. Despite being aware of the seriousness of the issue, many emergency units have been running out of oxygen, resulting in elderly people being pull off from the essential support. The research report titled Latin America Medical Oxygen Concentrators Market Outlook, 2026 by Actual Market Research categorizes the market to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following segments: based on product, technology, end users, countries & major companies. Crisis over the supply of medical oxygen struck in Latin America, where warnings went unheeded at the start of the pandemic and doctors say the shortage has led to unnecessary deaths.

The Medical Oxygen Concentrator market of Latin America was valued at USD 0.100 Billion in the year 2015. By mid of 2021, there were fears of the lack of oxygen supplies that could unfold in Brazil and even in other parts of Latin America, where the second wave of Covid-19, in many countries, was proving to be worse than the first one. The black market started to thrive in the region when the number of death due to pandemics increased. To make things worse, there have been reports of thieves taking oxygen cylinders from hospitals and clinics. After major countries reached crisis point, oxygen donations were sent from the federal government and other regions as the local providers declared that were unable to increase production. To add to the misery, transportation of these life support equipment became a problem. Crossing over all hurdles, the region’s market is looked forward to growing over an approximate anticipated CAGR of 7% through the forecasted period.

Many oxygen suppliers in the region had dramatically raised their prices, as much as by 10 times, which is more than the average monthly wage and a critically ill patient could need up to four cylinders a day. However, with the international donations, various nations in the region sustained, yet issues of the oxygen being not pure enough for the critical patients crawling up. Majorly divided into two categories, the market based on technology is led by the continuous flow segment, while the pulse flow technology is expected to grow enormously with an anticipated rate of over 11%. Doctors in the capital of Manaus were forced to choose which patients to treat as oxygen supplies dwindled.

Already being in distress of the uncontrollable spread of the pandemic, corruption played a vicious role in the region. Corruption was blamed for defects in a new oxygen plant at a hospital in Uganda’s capital of Kampala, where the people had to rely on rusty cylinders. While the top health officials basked in the oxygen supply for good publicity, the region faced patients were choking to death. The region is to face a hike in the demand for portable oxygen cylinders which is expected to grow with a future CAGR of 10.43%.

The lack of basic support for an oxygen manufacturing plant forced the critical patients to the door of death. Good infrastructure, skilled technicians, and break-free electricity were just on papers for the oxygen manufacturing plants in the region. The majority of the existing plants could not justify their full capacity, for instance, White Martins- one of the main medical oxygen providers in Brazil operated at half capacity. Only after deaths averaged 50 a day did the government say it would build 73 oxygen plants in the state. Within a month, 26 were up and running. The nonhome care segment in the region could not attain dominance, holding to 43.15% of the market in 2020. Brazil accounts for more than half of the region's deaths and ranks second in terms of mortality worldwide.