The Global Market for Composites: Resins, Fillers, Reinforcements, Natural Fibers & Nanocomposites

Report Highlights

The global reinforced plastic composite market is estimated to total 13.6 billion pounds in 2013, 14.3 billion pounds in 2014 and is expected to increase to nearly 17.2 billion pounds by 2019. This market is expected to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.7% through the forecast period of 2014 to 2019.

Report Includes

• An overview of the global market for reinforced plastic composites including resins, fillers, reinforcements, natural fibers & nanocomposites.
• Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2013, estimates for 2014, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2019.
• Segmentation of the major components of this market into its resin, technology, and applications components.
• Coverage of relevant applications including automotive; construction/infrastructure including anti-corrosion and panel products; marine markets; aerospace; electronic parts/components; appliances; consumer products (sport and leisure, lawn/garden products, etc.); and a miscellaneous category.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This report covers both thermosets and thermoplastics that use reinforcements to increase their respective property profiles for 2013, 2014 and 2019. These fibrous reinforcements include all glass fiber variants, carbon, boron, ceramic, aramid and stainless steel fibers, and so forth.

There is some confusion as to the overlapping of the terms “reinforced plastics” and “composites.” According to standard plastic dictionaries, these two terms are considered synonymous. One distinction between these two terms, cited by some within the industry, is that composites refer to those reinforced resins that can “support a load” or are “structurally reinforced.” This definition is also somewhat arbitrary since it is not clear what constitutes “supporting a load” or “structurally reinforced.”

Therefore, in this report, to simplify matters, the term “reinforced plastic composites” will be used to depict market sizes and forecasts. Since reinforcements are almost always based on fibers, the term “fiber-reinforced” is somewhat redundant and will not used unless it is a significant issue.

Within the text of the report, the terms “reinforced plastics” and/or “composites” will be used depending on the sources of information and BCC Research’s perception and analysis of these specific instances.

Readers should be aware that, in many instances, upgraded resins have been called both “reinforced” and/or “composites.” In addition, most resins being reinforced with what are called “advanced” reinforcements such as carbon fibers and aramid are most often termed “composites” especially in the construction, aerospace, auto and several other industries such as wind energy and anticorrosion, among others.

Current and forecasted quantitative market estimates will be provided for all appropriate thermoset and thermoplastic reinforced composites by application, along with detailed descriptions of the major types of reinforcements. Also, many compounded resin formulations can contain more than one type of reinforcement, such that glass fiber–reinforced composite plastics can contain another type of reinforcement. Furthermore, the volumes of products shown in the tables refer only to the estimated weight of the resins and exclude weights of reinforcements. The quantitative information contained in all data tables refers to the global market.

Applications in this report include automotive; construction/infrastructure, including other construction products, panels and bathroom products; anticorrosion products; marine markets; aerospace (mostly aircraft); electronic parts/components; appliances; and consumer products such as medical devices, sport and leisure, and lawn/garden products as well as a miscellaneous market, which covers the power market and other transportation areas such as rail, wind energy products and others.

Analyst Credentials

Melvin Schlechter has thirty years of experience in the chemical industry, specializes in plastics market research and has been a BCC Research analyst for since 2006. Previously, Mr. Schlechter was the International Director of Chemical Reports for Frost & Sullivan. He also worked for the Union Carbide Company as a Senior Market Research Analyst, was a Senior Organic/Polymer Chemist for Stauffer Chemical Company and a Research Organic Chemist for Allied Signal Corporation. Mr. Schlechter holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Queens College, a Masters in Organic Chemistry from Virginia Tech, and an MBA from Adelphi University.