UK grows aerospace industry compounds

The UK is a leader in the composites industry and represents opportunities for US companies in the aerospace, defense, wind power and automotive sectors, recommended the Department of Commerce.

From a general perspective, the UK economy is recovering and is expected to reach pre-crisis levels in early 2022.

OECD forecasts show UK production to increase 6.9% in 2021, with moderate growth to 4.7% in 2022 and 2.1% in 2023.

Consumption is the main driver of growth during the projection period.

According to the UK Composites Industry Competitiveness and Opportunity research conducted by Lucintel for Innovate UK, the UK composites industry was valued at a total of $ 5.29 billion (both raw materials and parts) in 2019 .

Approximately 1,500 companies in the UK are involved in the composites industry with around 400 companies having composites as their core business.

More than 85% of the activity is carried out by the 50 largest companies.

Compared to the United States, the United Kingdom has a compound consumption per capita that is roughly three times lower.

However, the future of the UK composites market looks attractive with opportunities in aerospace and defense ($ 2 billion opportunity), automotive ($ 670 million) and wind power ($ 320 million).

Aerospace

The industries most reliant on imports to the UK are automotive and wind power, and with the UK government’s focus on clean energy, the Department of Commerce expects high growth due to acceleration of turbine installations. offshore wind.

Fortunately, due to the size of wind turbine parts, manufacturing is often local.

Last year, the negative impact of Covid-19 in most industries resulted in a decrease in demand for compounds.

But two major industrial sectors have not been significantly affected; those are wind power and defense. Related demand from these sectors remains strong.

In the value chain in this segment, the UK has its own strong manufacturing base for resins, intermediates and composite parts, but there is a shortage of fiber manufacturing companies in the UK.

This represents opportunities for US fiber producers in the UK.

In addition, greater penetration of carbon fibers is expected in weight-sensitive applications, although the slow growth of industries such as aerospace due to Covid-19 will affect this segment.