Information points in the glass fiber industry of the whole world

According to the composite materials market research expert Lucintel Corporation reported that since 1960, the US composite materials industry increased by 25 times, while the steel industry grew by only 1.5 times, aluminum industry increased by 3 times.

In the preparation of this year's "Industry Status Report", the magazine invited several industry experts to introduce their views on several major areas - glass fiber, carbon fiber, aerospace, and the automotive market. The following is the CEO of Lucintel's view of the fiberglass market.

The prospects for fiberglass composites are promising as more original equipment manufacturers use composites for a variety of applications. Glass fiber is the mainstream of composite materials, is expected to 2022 global glass fiber value will reach 9.3 billion US dollars, from 2016 to calculate the compound annual growth rate of 4.5%. On the supply side, Lucintel estimates that the original glass fiber production capacity will increase or upgrade by 20% over the next two to three years to meet the demand for fiberglass. In 2016, the world for composite materials with glass fiber production capacity of 11 billion pounds (about 499 million tons), now the utilization rate of about 91%.

In recent years, glass fiber manufacturers have implemented a strategic shift. Jia Si Maiwei, AGY, Chongqing international composite materials and boulders in North America and South America established under the fiberglass enterprises. European glass fiber manufacturers are also expanding production capacity to fill the Chinese manufacturers to implement anti-dumping and countervailing duties caused by the vacuum. LANXESS invests $ 19.5 million to expand its production capacity at its glass fiber plant in Belgium, and Jasmine's investment of $ 65 million to expand its capacity in the glass fiber plant in Slovakia.

In addition, Chinese manufacturers in the Middle East, a significant increase in glass fiber production capacity. In 2013, the boulders built a plant with a capacity of 80,000 tons in Egypt and an additional 80,000 tons in 2016. From 2017 to 2018, the total production capacity of the boulder's Egyptian plant reached 200,000 tons. Another Chinese manufacturer, Chongqing International and the Kingdom of Bahrain, Abasan fiberglass company (Abahsainl

Fiberglass established a joint venture with an annual capacity of 180,000 tonnes.

In addition to increased plant capacity, some companies are developing advanced glass fiber, the trend is to improve the tensile strength, modulus and heat resistance. In order to meet the market demand for higher strength materials, glass fiber and carbon fiber and other materials, glass fiber manufacturers are working to develop tensile strength than existing products, two to three times the glass fiber. Target use includes wind turbine blades, bicycle frames and aerospace devices. All in all, glass fiber reinforced plastics face a good future opportunity. In order to benefit from these opportunities, original equipment manufacturers, tier 1 suppliers and material suppliers need to work together to deploy appropriate investments and resources, develop new technologies to achieve light weight, low cost, composite material repair and recycling The strategic objectives.