JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #110 - January/February 2017 - 18

BUSlNESS

18
20
21

Trend

The place for new materials
Startup booster

JEC WORLD 2017 is committed to innovation
China

Zhuhai Air Show displays China's
defence and export ambitions

BUSlNESS trend

The place for new materials
Sports & leisure is the market of choice to test new materials, thanks to marketing
that caters to novelty and performance, and to a regulatory framework with fewer
standards compared to aerospace or automotive. Its growth in terms of composites may not be exceptional, but it is steady. At any rate, this sector still has some
surprises in store.

ccording to market research firm Lucintel,
sporting goods distribution should rise at a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 3.4% over the
2015-2020 period. This market obviously depends on
the real economy, on government or transnational initiatives, and on the gradual shift of consumer concerns
from seeking performance to
health. In a number of countries, the market is developing much more through
recruitment of new practitioners than through higher
spending on the part of confirmed athletes. So it is a relatively mature market, due
mainly to replacement of
equipment - if you leave out
its textile component, which

is linked more to general
fashion trends, e.g. in sneakers. There does seem to be a
trend with the rising share of
the feminine segment, however. A lot of equipment manufacturers have caught on and
are fleshing out their offering for this target. The AsiaPacific region, led by China,
has a lot of potential with its
growing middle class.
Composites in the sports
& leisure sector
The German Federation of
Reinforced Plastics AVK estimates that the sports and
leisure market will account
for 15% of European volume
of glass fibre reinforced plastics (GRP) in 2016. By its
very nature, the composites
market is heavily fragmented
into materials, process and
applications. The sports and
leisure market just reinforces

this trend; for example, carbon fibre volume for that sector should reach 8,000 metric
tons in 2016 and 9,300 MT by
2020, with a 3.8% CAGR over
the 2013-2020 period (way
ahead of the growth of automotive and pressure vessels).
This should account for 11.2%
of total carbon-fibre demand
in 2016 and 8.4% in 2020
(Source: "Carbon fibres: history, players and forecast to

2020" by JEC Group/Franck
Glowacz). Carbon fibre consumption in the sector varies
widely, as shown in Figure 1.
The Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan), mostly China,
accounts for nearly 91% of the
sector. The immense majority
of the manufactured goods, of
course, being exported. North
America, Japan and Europe
are scraping up the crumbs,
with 4.1%, 3% and 2%.

90.9% Asia-Pacific

(Japan exludes, China mainly)

7140 tonnes
in 2013

3.0% Japan
2.0% Europe
4.1% North America

Fig. 1: 2013 carbon fibre consumption in sports & leisure, by geographical area

jec composites magazine / No110 January - February 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #110 - January/February 2017