Lightweight Materials Market Grows with Material Innovations in Aviation

Lightweight materials are convenient and as a result, they hold utmost importance across different industrial verticals. Great use across different industries is building potential business prospects for the key players in the lightweight materials market. Strong rise in usage from aviation, automotive and energy sectors along with the constant innovations in the material technologies are expected to contribute to the present growth rate of this industry. Rising demand from various industrial applications and geographic regions are set to help the players in this market to witness steady growth in the years to come. Existing players are expected to come across business expansion opportunities across more untapped markets.

Scope of Research – Segmentation

Researchers segment the lightweight materials market into different types of products, applications and geographic regions. Analysis of these segments helps them gather the details about the prevailing trends, challenges, competition, growth opportunities and forecasts for the market. The major products studied by the researchers include plastics (polypropylene and polycarbonate), metals (titanium, aluminum, magnesium and high strength steel) and composites (glass fiber reinforced plastics and carbon fiber reinforced plastics). These products find major applications across marine, aviation, wind energy and automotive segments. On the basis of the geographic segments, the industry is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and rest of the world.

Market Drivers & Future Growth

According to the experts, lightweight materials market is expected to be driven by growing demand from different industrial verticals. Material innovations in the aviation sector are also expected to drive the market in the years to come. Increasing rules and regulations about fuel efficiency and vehicular emissions are also expected to influence the overall growth of the market in the coming years. Rising demand from wind energy, changing regulations in emerging countries and commercialization of the electronic vehicles are expected to create business opportunities in the market during the next few years. High costs and safety and technology issues remain the major restraints for the market.

However, researchers expect the lightweight materials market to grow at a steady CAGR of over 8% from 2014 to become worth $133.1 billion by 2019. In 2014, the market was estimated to be worth $88.5 billion. Aviation segment is expected to dominate the global market in terms of market share. However, automotive applications are also expected to drive the market in the coming few years. North America and Asia Pacific are expected to dominate the global market on the basis of market consumption. In 2013, these regions contributed to over 71% of total lightweight materials industry.