JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #81 - May/June 2013 - 43

Tab.1: FRP shipping amounts by field (2008-2011), metric tons

Field/year

1996
(reference)

2008

2009

2010

2011

Construction

45,100

39,100

36,700

37,000

31,800

Residential

123,000

101,000

80,000

78,700

83,800

Sewage disposal

107,100

39,200

31,500

32,500

34,700

Marine

24,100

8,700

6,900

7,100

7,900

Automotive & railcars

22,300

37,700

24,200

28,700

29,100

Industrial

60,100

36,300

28,100

27,800

26,400

Tanks & containers

42,400

22,500

18,000

18,000

20,100

Miscellaneous

42,400

18,700

13,500

18,800

21,600

Other

13,000

8,800

6,400

5,400

4,500

Total

479,500
(max.year)

312,000

245,300

254,000

259,900
The construction is always in the top 5 sector in
volume in Japan

Tab. 2: Evolution of sector positioning by volume: 1996-2006-2011

Rank

1996
(reference)

2006

2011

1

Residential

Residential

Residential

2

Sewage disposal

Sewage disposal

Sewage disposal

3

Industrial

Construction

Construction

4

Construction

Industrial

Automotive & railcars

5

Tanks & containers

Automotive, Railcars

Industrial

6

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

7

Marine

Tanks & containers

Tanks & containers

8

Automotive & railcars

Marine

Marine

9

Other

Other

Other

Total

479,500 MT
(max. year)

359,000 MT

259,900 MT

Source: JRPS, Japan Reinforced Plastic Society

The automotive/railcars sector
stands out
There are, however, a few trends that
should be mentioned, as they could be
an indication of more radical changes
to come. The first concerns the
industrial sector, which is slowly but
steadily declining, from 28,100 MT
in 2009 to 27,800 MT in 2010 and
26,400 MT in 2011. The industrial
sector has moved to fifth place among
user sectors, while it was in third place
in 1996. At least three things could account for this: outsourcing to low-la-

bour-cost countries, so fewer factories
in Japan; excessively high prices; and/
or not enough innovations capable
of meeting industrial expectations.
This trend is unfortunate, of course,
because industry is generally a sector
that is pretty favourable to composite
materials.
The second change, and the most
interesting one, is the ranking of the
automotive/railcars sector, which
goes from eighth to fourth place over
the period, and increases in volume

from 22,300 MT in 1996 to 29,100
MT in 2011. Note that this sector is
the only one to grow in volume over
the 1996-2011 period. The eight
other reference sectors all lost volume
compared to the reference year, when
volumes were at their highest.
The situation of the automotive sector
is encouraging and shows that Japan is
not one down on the global trends, i.e.
there is a growing interest in the automotive sector for composite materials
in general. This analysis must be taken
with a caveat, however, because we
have no breakdown between automotive and railcars, which has always
been an important sector in Japan.
The data for 2012 has not been
announced yet, and the calculating
method is being studied.
The Japanese composites market
could be completely different if sectors like defence/security and aerospace were to develop, as that would
provide applications for the carbon
fibre produced in Japan. For now,
most of the production is exported
and processed elsewhere. n

No81 May - June 2013 /

More information:
www.jrps.org.jp

jec composites magazine 43
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JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #81 - May/June 2013

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