Structural Core Materials Market by End-Use Industry, by Core Material Type, and by Region, Size, Share, Trend, Forecast, Competitive, and Growth Opportunity Analysis: 2020-2025

This comprehensive report on the structural core materials market is one of its kind and estimates the current as well as future growth opportunities for the market participants until 2025. The report segments and analyzes the market in the most detailed manner in order to provide a panoramic view of the market. The vital data/information provided in the report can play a crucial role for the market participants in the identification of the low-hanging fruits available in the market as well as to formulate the growth strategies in order to expedite their growth process.

Structural Core Materials Market: Highlights

The core materials refer to the central component of sandwich construction. The well-known core materials used in sandwich construction are honeycomb, foam, and balsa. This core material absorbs the shear forces generated by out of planeloads, distributing between the skins and spreading them over a larger area, while maintaining the skins at a fixed distance. The core’s function is to support the skins so that they do not deform inwardly or outwardly to keep them in relative position to each other. The core materials can be made of a variety of materials such as wood, aluminum, and a variety of foams.

The demand for core materials is largely dependent upon the growth of the end-use industries, such as wind energy, aerospace, marine, and transportation. All of the major end-use markets are estimated to witness a plunge in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, initially in China then rapidly spread across the world. The structural core materials market could also not escape itself from this rapidly changing market dynamics and is anticipated to log a negative growth in 2020.

Some of the industries, especially aerospace and automotive, were already in immense pressure, encircled by industry-specific factors. For instance, the grounding of B737 Max, P&W 1100G engine series failure (A320neo), delayed the deliveries of upcoming aircraft programs such as B777X, and revised production rates of key aircraft programs; A350XWB and B787 due to cancellation of orders, already tumbled the aviation industry growth in 2019. Similarly, worldwide automotive production plunged by 1% in 2018 and 5.8% in 2019, primarily factored by the major markets reaching automobile saturation and developing markets struggling to pick up the sales. These industries were anticipated to rebound from the 2nd quarter of 2020 but the outbreak of the pandemic further deepened the industry concerns to an unprecedented level.

The COVID-19 pandemic is anticipated to leave short-term repercussions on the demand for core materials. As per industry experts, there will be a minimal impact of this pandemic in the long run. Most of the end-use industries, such as aerospace, have learned the art to emerge back from such breath-taking market conditions (SARS 2002-2003, MERS 2015, and the Great Recession 2009). Also, the growth of major markets, such as wind energy and marine (recreational fiberglass boats), are usually ebb and flow, snowballing stakeholders’ capabilities in absorbing huge market pressure and enhancing adaptability based on market conditions. Also, the long-term market fundamentals of the major markets are strong, assist the industry to rebound quickly in order to fill the voids (losses) generated because of the pandemic.

Furthermore, increasing demand for longer yet lightweight wind turbine blades, growing offshore wind energy installations, huge order backlogs of both OEMs (Boeing and Airbus), ongoing recovery of the recreational fiberglass boat sales, the excellent performance of sandwich composites are some of the major driving factors that will drive the demand for structural core materials. The market for structural core materials is subjected to reach US$ 0.9 billion in 2025, a milestone that has never touched before by the industry.

The structural core materials market is segmented based on the core material type as PVC (Polyvinyl chloride), PET (Polyethylene terephthalate), SAN (Styrene acrylonitrile), PMI (Polymethacrylimide), Balsa, and Others. PVC foam core is likely to maintain its dominance in the market over the next five years, owing to its numerous benefits, for instance, cost-effectiveness with excellent durability, long-life expectancy, good electrical, and insulation properties. Wind energy is the largest consumer of PVC core materials. In terms of both value as well as volume, PET foam core is likely to register the highest growth during the forecast period.

Based on the end-use industry, wind energy is projected to remain the largest market for structural core materials in the coming five years, in terms of both value and volume. Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) anticipates that over 355 GW of new wind energy capacity will be added from 2020 to 2024, which is equivalent to the addition of 71 GW of wind energy each year till 2024. The demand for longer wind blades is adding a further stir in the demand for structural core materials. Aerospace & Defense, the worst-hit segment, is subjected to heal up with the fastest pace after the pandemic.

In terms of regions, Asia-Pacific is expected to be the largest structural core materials market during the forecast period. China and India are likely to be the growth engines of the region’s market. China is the largest wind turbine market in the world. GWEC anticipates that approximately 118 GW of new onshore wind turbine capacity additions is likely to be installed in the country during 2020-2024. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in China may affect the country’s attractiveness for the shorter term with an expected decline in the year 2020. Despite a downfall in demand, it is anticipated that the country’s market to emerge again as one of the most attractive markets in the world, with significant growth opportunities.

North-America is likely to witness the highest growth over the forecast period. The market dynamics of structural core materials in North America is different than other regions. The region’s demand for structural core materials in the past five years was more impressive and stable as compared to the other major regions. The USA is likely to be the growth engine of the region’s market in the foreseeable future.

The key structural core materials manufacturing companies are 3A Composites GmbH (Schweiter Technologies AG); DIAB International AB (Ratos AB); Gurit Holding AG; Armacell International S.A.; Evonik Industries AG; Changzhou Tiansheng New Materials Co., Ltd.; SABIC; BASF SE; I-Core Composites; Composite Essential Materials (Nida Core); and Baoding Meiwo Science & Technology Development Co., Ltd.

Research Methodology

This report offers high-quality insights and is the outcome of detailed research methodology comprising extensive secondary research, rigorous primary interviews with industry stakeholders and validation and triangulation with the publisher’s internal database and statistical tools. More than 700 authenticated secondary sources, such as company annual reports, fact book, press release, journals, investor presentation, white papers, patents, and articles, have been leveraged to gather the data. The publisher conducted more than 15 detailed primary interviews with the market players across the value chain in all four regions and industry experts to obtain both qualitative and quantitative insights.

Report Features

This report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights into the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market.

The following are the key features of the report:

• Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysis
• Market environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porter’s five forces analysis, SWOT analysis
• Market trend and forecast analysis
• Market segment trend and forecast
• Competitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, Product portfolio, New product launches, etc.
• Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunities
• Emerging trends
• Strategic growth opportunities for the existing and new players
• Key success factors

The global structural core materials market is segmented into the following categories:

Structural Core Materials Market, By Core Material Type

• PVC (Regional Analysis: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)
• PET (Regional Analysis: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)
• SAN (Regional Analysis: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)
• PMI (Regional Analysis: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)
• Balsa (Regional Analysis: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)
• Others (Regional Analysis: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)

Structural Core Materials Market, By End-Use Industry

• Wind Energy (Regional Analysis: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)
• Marine (Regional Analysis: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)
• Ground Transportation (Regional Analysis: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)
• Aerospace & Defense (Regional Analysis: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)
• Others (Regional Analysis: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW)

Structural Core Materials Market, By Region

• North America (Country Analysis: The USA, Canada, Mexico)
• Europe (Country Analysis: France, Germany, the UK, Russia and Rest of Europe)
• Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: China, Japan, India, and Rest of Asia-Pacific)
• Rest of the World (Sub-Region Analysis: Latin America, the Middle East, and Others)