According to a new market report published by market analyst Lucintel, the global continuous fiber thermoplastics (CFT) market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.5% from 2017 to 2022, with opportunities in transportation, aerospace and defense, industrial, and the sporting goods industries.
Within the global CFT market, the aerospace and defense segment is expected to remain the largest market by value and transportation segment by volume. Expected growth in the development and production of advanced aircraft models, increasing use of lightweight composites in new aircraft programs, such as Boeing 787, Airbus A350, and growing use of lightweight materials in transportation industry are the major driving forces that spur growth for these segments over the forecast period, according to Lucintel.
Unidirectional (UD) tape is expected to remain the largest segment due to its growing use in aerospace and defense and transportation industries, while low temperature CFT is expected to remain the largest segment by both value and volume over the forecast period. By reinforcement type, glass fiber reinforced CFT is expected to remain the largest segment by both value and volume and PEEK based CFT is expected to remain the largest segment by value and PP based CFT is expected to remain the largest segment by volume over the forecast period.
Sustainable composites
Europe is expected to remain the largest market for CFT due to growing demand for high performance, lightweight, and environmentally sustainable thermoplastic composites in different end use industries. However, North America is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period due to an expected increase in the production of advanced aircraft models, growing vehicle production and an increasing focus on lightweight composite materials.
Emerging trends which have a direct impact on the dynamics of the industry include continuous innovation and development of new products and applications particularly in the automotive and aerospace industries.
This story uses material from Lucintel,with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
