Market Trends: Lightening Up with Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Plastics
The market for carbon fiber-reinforced plastics composites is projected to grow 9.9% between 2015 and 2020, mainly due to demand in the aerospace and defense and automotive sectors.
Carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) are lightweight and high-strength composites designed for enhanced performance in a number of applications. They offer improvement in structural, functional or cosmetic properties. The market size for CFRP composites accounted for $20.3 billion in 2014, and is projected to register a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.9% between 2015 and 2020, to reach $35.8 billion.
Carbon fiber composites are traditionally used in the aerospace and defense industry, due to physical and mechanical properties such as light weight, high mechanical strength, thermal and chemical stability, recyclability dimensional stability, and heat resistance. Today, carbon fiber composites are finding new uses in wind turbine, sporting goods, automotive, marine, construction and other applications. The demand growth of carbon fiber composites in these applications is driven by their lightweight properties, fuel economy benefits and other performance features.