The American Composites Market

RECOVERY ► The Composites Industry in North America

The American composites industry has a strong proven track record for its high-volume usage, with automated processes coupled with good design and development expertise. The future of the American composites industry looks prosperous through 2015 and beyond.

Overview ► The American market

The American composites market represents 36% of the global composites industry in value (22 billion Euros) and 35% in volume (2.7 million metric tons). Moreover composites in the USA represents 16% of the US structural materials market (steel: 76%, aluminum: 8%) following a 6% annual growth since 1960. During the same period, steel growth had stagnated and aluminum growth less remained under 1% per year. The increased GDP in the USA has raised the volume of composites per capitato around 8-9kg, whereas it is only 1-2kg per capita in China, for instance.

Global Composites Market: €77 billion - 8,7 million metric tons

Application Sectors

The growth of the composites industry is mainly driven by 3 application sectors:

► Automotive/transportation ► Wind Energy       ► Aerospace

The American composites market by application in volume, 2010

Demand for thermoplastic composites is projected to grow at an aboveaverage rate through 2015, fuelled by their high performance, competitive costs, processing advantages over thermoset composites and better design capabilities.

Processes & Technologies

Injection moulding technologies (such as Sheet Moulding Compound, Thermoplastic Injection Moulding, Bulk Moulding Compound, Resin Transfer Moulding and Reaction Injection Moulding) are the most widespread widespread industrial processes (48%). Continuous processes (such as pultrusion or Filament winding…) come second (25%), followed by manual processes (16%) and, finally, compression processes (10%).