Top 10 Events of Global Composites Industry in 2021

In recent years, national ministries and commissions have issued policy documents on the development of new materials, emphasizing the strategic position of the new materials industry and providing important development opportunities for the field of composite materials. The domestic composite material industry in China is developing and growing rapidly,accelerating the promotion and application in the fields of aerospace, new energy, automobile, rail transportation, wind power, etc., iterating and upgrading in technology research, development and application, and injecting new vitality into the development of the construction material industry.

So,what are the big events happening in the composites industry in 2021? China Composites Industry Association and China Building Materials Magazine jointly released the top 10 news of composite material industry in 2021.

1、The world's first high-temperature superconducting high-speed magnetic levitation engineering prototype car opened： Design speed 620 km/h!

On January 13, the world's first high-temperature superconducting high-speed magnetic levitation engineering prototype and test line was officially opened in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. The prototype is manufactured by Shanghai Jinfei using new techniques such as full carbon composite lightweight body and low resistance head shape, with a design speed of 620 km/h, which is expected to create a new record for land transportation speed and lay the foundation for a breakthrough to the speed value of more than 1000 km/h in the long run.

As a key engineering project of the National Science and Technology Work Conference in 2021 - the 600 km/h high-speed maglev test prototype came off the line, which is a concrete practice to implement the accelerated key core technology research and comprehensive major special task sprint. On behalf of China, the application of carbon fiber composite materials in high-speed trains has moved into the forefront of the world. Transportation is the most important field of composite materials, with the continuous innovation of technology, under the promotion of carbon peak and carbon neutrality target, the light weight of transportation tools will become the main development direction in a certain period of time, special sealing materials, special friction materials and carbon fiber resin-based composites are being used in large quantities. By the end of 2021, the national production of new lines reached 4,208 km, including 2,168 km of high-speed rail. So far, the national railroad mileage exceeded 150,000 km, of which high-speed rail has exceeded 40,000 km.

2、CNBM accelerates its entry into the aviation industry, contributing 100 million to establish an affiliated company

Sinoma Science & Technology Co,. Ltd announced an external investment (aerospace composite materials) and related transaction on February 26, 2021, in which it intends to jointly invest RMB 100 million with CNBM to established CNBM (Shanghai) Aviation Composite Materials Co.,Ltd.

The aerospace industry, a core sector for composites, is expected to reach a global market for aerospace materials of $26.5 billion by 2025 and $56 billion by 2030. The value of advanced recyclable composites will continue to grow, driven by factors such as lightweight, fuel consumption and growing environmental concepts. From a worldwide perspective, although the global impact of the pandemic, while China benefits from the domestic economic transformation and urbanization process, domestic civil aviation, general aviation, air sports demand is rising. China's aviation industry has opened a new era. It is predicted that the market size of China's aerospace composites will reach ￥25.8 billion in 2022, with a forecasted CAGR of 9.4% in the next few years, which will help form specialized leading composites companies in different segments.

3、The recycling of wind power FRP solid waste is on the rise

Composites UK has announced its participation in a major new project to develop wind turbine blade recycling in the UK, which was formally approved after the proposal received funding from the UK government. The main objective of the pilot project is to ensure a more sustainable future for the global wind energy industry and the wider composites manufacturing industry - all of which will accelerate the achievement of net zero emissions and lower waste, ensure the sustainability of wind energy and composites globally, and create new skills and jobs in the sector in the UK.

Wind power is already an important source of electricity supply for countries around the world. In the EU, for example, wind power accounts for less than 1% of the overall electricity supply in 2000, to more than 16% at present. According to information released by the National Energy Administration of China, China's cumulative installed wind turbines have accounted for 12.9% of the country's installed power generation capacity from 381.2Mw in 2001 to 300 million kw by the end of 2021. Research shows that, according to the calculation of the design life about 20 ~ 25 years for a wind power blade, by 2050, the global waste blade will reach 43 million tons, of which China accounted for 40%, Europe accounted for 25%, the United States of America accounted for 16%, other regions accounted for 19%. It estimates that 52,000 wind turbine blades will need to be discarded each year until 2030. China will have about 10,920 tons of blades and about 3,000 tons of nacelle covers and hubcaps, totaling about 15,000 tons of waste FRP to be disposed of during 2020~2025, and 744,000 tons of blades and 137,500 tons of nacelle covers and hubcaps, totaling about 900,000 tons of waste FRP to be disposed of during 2020~2030. As an industry chasing the sunrise, the wind power industry is desperately short of practical experience in handling waste blades. At present, its main disposal method is simply burying and burning, resulting in a extremely unfriendly huge waste of land resources. WindEurope has called for a Europe-wide ban on landfill of waste wind turbine blades by 2025, and the Global Composites Sustainability Coalition (GCSC) has responded positively. The current blade recycling-related business is becoming an industry hotspot, ready to take off.

4、Raw materials prices soar, composites products companies increase profit pressure

Since this year, some commodity prices continue to rise sharply, including iron ore, steel, copper and other varieties of prices to continue last year's upward trend, some hit a 10-year high. According to the published PMI data, the raw material purchase price rebounded sharply from 66.9 to 72.8. Raw material price increases cost of the industry's upstream and downstream enterprises, and profitability of different impacts. Toray (Toray Industries, Inc.) raised the sales price of carbon fiber by 20% from the new contract in 2021; while in glass fiber, the direct yarn of thermoset category was raised by no less than 200 yuan/ton; the thermoplastic reinforced yarn and glass fiber products were raised by no less than 300 yuan/ton; the combined yarn and short-cut raw yarn were raised by no less than 400 yuan/ton.

Composite products companies are in the downstream of the industry, for many years the industry's traditional market is facing excess capacity, rising labor costs, the pressure of product homogenization is serious. To add insult to injury, market demand got weakening of  in 2021, which will result difficulties for product companies to transmit raw material price increases to the downstream, and industry profitability will be impaired. According to the research, at least 30% of enterprises in the industry are in a loss-making situation. Some enterprises to reduce the quality standards of raw materials, has seriously affected the industry's sustainable, healthy and high-quality development.

For the industry brand effect of the leading enterprises, the channel advantage is obvious, and they has a high bargaining power, while in the product diversification, differentiation and technological innovation on the foundation laid, decided the ability to transfer the cost of raw materials in the process of rising prices, for specific products also have the power to raise prices, the impact on demand is also correspondingly small. According to the research, nearly 20% of the companies had a significant increase in earnings.

5、Glass fiber products are classified as two high energy consume and pollute.

Like the manufacture of cement, glass, ceramics and other products, the manufacture of glass fiber is also produced by firing the ore in a kiln process, which requires a certain amount of electricity, natural gas and other energy. On August 12, 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released the "Barometer of the Completion of the Double Control Target of Energy Consumption in the First Half of 2021 by Regions", and as the situation of double control of energy consumption around the world becomes increasingly tense, the discussion on the definition of the category of "two high" industries becomes more and more intense. Shandong, Jiangsu and Guangdong have issued "two high" project control directory, in which Guangdong and Jiangsu will be the glass fiber and products industry investment projects into the "two high" control list. However, compared with the high energy consumption of cement, etc., whether it is coarse or fine yarn, the direct integrated energy consumption of the pool kiln process is no more than 0.5 tons of standard coal per ton of yarn.

Glass fiber products have good market applications in wind power, photovoltaic, automotive lightweight, building energy saving, etc. The actual annual demand for glass fiber in 2021 is nearly 7 million tons, and there is long-term demand growth. So it seems, whether for glass fiber raw material manufacturing, or for glass fiber products, are required based on energy consumption standards and product quality to differentiate, to protect the advanced, eliminate the backward, "double reduction" can not be simplistic. For glass fiber products that are applied to new energy and help achieve the goal of double carbon, they should be accounted for scientifically in steps.

6、Sinoma Technology Suzhou: Leading the Hydrogen Cylinder Industry

Sinoma Technology Suzhou focuses on cultivating new products such as hydrogen energy storage and transportation containers, 70MPa Type IV bottles and fuel cell materials, while its Chengdu subsidiary focuses on Type III hydrogen storage cylinders and compressed natural gas cylinders. The company makes full use of equipment and technology advantages, adopts fully intelligent multi-station carbon fiber winding equipment, and takes the lead in the world to develop plate type drawn steel liner carbon fiber full winding series gas cylinders, combining with market demand to precisely position the specification size, the vehicle weight reduction effect is outstanding, and the market share of the whole vehicle is as high as 70%; it has contributed to the road of leading the technology development of composite material storage and transportation industry.

Global market research estimates that the market may accelerate from 2021 onward, eventually surpassing $3 billion in 2026. The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration's Innovation Action Plan for Energy Technology Revolution (2016~2030) state that the country has included hydrogen energy and fuel cell technology innovation research as one of the key tasks. In the whole hydrogen energy industry chain, besides the fuel cell reactor which is the key equipment, the application and promotion of on-board hydrogen storage system is also an important breakthrough for the commercialization of hydrogen energy vehicles. According to analysts at Huatai Securities, China will become the world's largest market for on-board hydrogen storage bottles, with the combined market size expected to reach 323.4 billion yuan from 2020-2050.

Hydrogen energy, as an important clean energy source after solar energy, wind energy and bio-energy, is the most suitable to be applied to vehicle power, which started less than three years ago but is developing rapidly. Compared to lithium batteries, hydrogen fuel cells have greater energy density. The calorific value (MJ/kg) of lithium batteries is 0.72, gasoline is 43.1, natural gas is 50.8, and hydrogen is 142.5, which is more than 100 times that of lithium batteries. By the end of 2021, the number of hydrogen energy vehicles in China has reached 7,352. The prospect of hydrogen energy is very broad, as of December 2017, the cumulative sales of hydrogen passenger cars worldwide are less than 6,000, and there are 328 hydrogen refueling stations; the Beijing Winter Olympics, which will open in February 2022, will focus on hydrogen travel, and will demonstrate the operation of more than 1,000 fuel cell vehicles and more than 30 hydrogen refueling stations, and the project adopts the composite hydrogen cylinders produced by Beijing Tianhai Industry Co.

7、3D printing complex structural parts to help aerospace business

On September 1, 2021, the Second Department of the Second Academy of China Aerospace Science and Industry Group (CASIC) announced to the public the recent realization of 3D printing integrated manufacturing of complex structures of a certain type of aircraft products, which is an important milestone of 3D printing technology in the development of aircraft in the field of aerospace, further enhancing the level of light weight of aircraft and providing strong support for the future development of a new generation of aircraft. 3D printing technology has the characteristics of high molding accuracy, short manufacturing cycle, complex shape and hollow structure, which can meet the design and manufacturing needs of "lightweight, high performance and rapid development" of aerospace products, and is considered to be one of the future structural design and manufacturing technology change directions in the aerospace field. In the same month, American composite additive manufacturing company AREVO completed the construction of the world's largest continuous carbon fiber composite additive manufacturing plant. The Additive Manufacturing Composites 2020~2030 report shows that the overall composite additive manufacturing market (materials, hardware, services, and applications) will grow from $480 million in 2020 to over $10.6 billion by 2030.

8、New technology, new design to help the low-cost development pattern of composite blade, Shuangrui first batch of wind turbine blade with FRP pultruded plate successfully rolled out

On October 17, the first batch of H210-10 MW wind turbine blades with pultruded glass panels was officially launched by Luoyang Shuangrui. Pultruded sheet is a kind of plate profile with epoxy resin as the base material and high modulus glass fiber as the reinforcement material, manufactured by pultrusion process with release cloth on the surface, mainly used in the manufacture of wind turbine blade beams. Compared with the traditional vacuum infusion process, the pultrusion process is the most efficient in the composite production process, making blades in only 50% of the time of the infusion process; the modulus is increased by 21%, up to 65 Gpa. Eliminate the beam forming process, save the cost of beam molds effectively reduce production costs; high fiber content, stable quality, continuous forming is easy to automate, suitable for mass production. The most suitable production process for wind turbine blade beam production, but also the future development trend of the blade main beam.

Huamei, Chongqing Fengdu, Zhongfu and other composite companies have invested in pultruded glass plate market, this three leading share of nearly 80% of the market share. By the end of 2021 for wind power blade production of pultrusion production line has reached more than 1000, 2022 will reach 1300. Although pulling the main beam has become an inevitable trend of wind power, but the current market is not mature, the capacity has been seriously overcapacity, industry self-regulation needs to be considered as early as possible.

9、Assembly housing startup 'Cover' completes $60 million Series B funding round, house-building technology benchmarked against Tesla.

November 4, 2021, according to foreign media TechCrunchreports, the assembled housing company "Cover" recently announced the completion of $60 million in Series B financing, led by Gigafund, a venture capital firm founded by former Founders Fund investors, and followed by Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Lennar, Fifty Years and others followed. Company founder and CEO Alexis Xavier Rivas likens "Cover's" house manufacturing process to that of a car manufacturer, assembling and providing customization quickly, and has now attracted engineers Teslafrom SpaceX and...The increasingly tight energy and environmental situation requires the transformation of the development mode of the construction industry, the trend of building components factory prefabricated and assembly industrialized construction Building Industryis the development of the building, "like building cars to build houses" is becoming the development concept of the world's assembly houses.According to statistics, assembled housing in the United States accounts for 55% in the South, 19% in the West, 18% in the Midwest and 9% in the Northeast; up to 75% in coastal, peninsular and island regions of the country, and over 80% in the southern coastal regions. A report states that the global market for assembled housing reaches $42.8 billion in 2020, with an estimated compound growth rate of 2.9% over five years.

Domestic assembled houses are supported by many governments, and the road of development of new building industrialization is flat. With the assembled building officially proposed in the central conference and documents in 2016, there is a boom in the development of assembled building in China. Nowadays, under the goal of "double carbon" and long-termism, the market space for assembled buildings is huge in the process of high-quality transformation of the real estate industry. In 2021, many governments issued relevant policies, and the Beijing Municipal Housing and Construction Commission issued the "Implementation Opinions on the Further Development of Assembled Buildings (Draft for Comments)", specifying that the proportion of assembled buildings to new construction area should reach more than 40% in 2022. In May 2021, Yue Qingrui, academician of the Academy of Engineering and professor of civil engineering, issued a "proposal on strengthening the research and application of fiber composite materials for civil engineering" to the composite industry, through the application of pultruded profiles, three-dimensional hollow fabric composite panels and other related products, composite assembly houses are widely used.

10、Opportunities for the development of composite sports goods: the Ministry of Science and Technology supports innovation in the sports industry, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission attaches importance to sports training

The Ministry of Science and Technology is promoting the formation of a national technology innovation center for carbon fiber and its composite materials, which includes a carbon fiber technology R&D and innovation platform, a carbon fiber composite materials and application research platform, a carbon fiber pilot and incubation platform, and a carbon fiber industry testing and standards platform. The Ministry of Science and Technology will also strengthen communication with the General Administration of Sports to attract superior scientific research units and enterprises related to the sports industry to cooperate with the Innovation Center to carry out applications, transform a number of advanced technologies of composite materials, and provide strong scientific and technological support for the branding of composite sports equipment and other work.

On December 9, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission released the "Beijing Compulsory Education Physical Education and Health Assessment and Evaluation Program". According to the program, the compulsory education physical education and health assessment and evaluation includes two parts: process assessment and on-site examination, with a total score of 70 points, which is included in the total score of the secondary school entrance examination. After the release of the program, Beijing has selected seven districts, namely Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chaoyang, Haidian, Mentougou, Daxing and Huairou, as pilot districts to start the daily exercise monitoring work for students. Beijing is on the verge of a new development in the national fitness movement.

An pandemic of the century has not only changed people's lifestyles, but also enhanced the new understanding of sports and exercise. According to the Reportlinker report on the analysis of the global composite materials market for sports equipment, the market size of sports composite materials will reach $3.9 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.3% during 2020 to 2027, according to the "Sports Development "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" development goals, by 2020, the total size of the national sports industry will exceed 3 trillion, the number of people who regularly participate in physical activity will reach 435 million; according to the "Sports Power Construction Outline" development plan, by 2035, the proportion of Chinese residents who regularly participate in physical activity will reach more than 45%, and the per capita The stadium area will reach 2.5 square meters. The National Fitness Plan (2021-2025) requires that by 2025, driving the total scale of the national sports industry to reach 5 trillion yuan, the scale of the sports industry is growing and will certainly become a pillar industry of the national economy.