AVK releases 2020 GRP annual market report
In the current year, the European glass fiber-reinforced plastics volume is expected to decrease by 12.7%, experiencing one of the sharpest declines since the crisis in 2008.
Photo Credit: AVK
The Industry Association for Reinforced Plastics (AVK, Frankfurt, Germany) published in November its annual market report on glass fiber-reinforced plastics (GRP). This year, says AVK, the GRP market is experiencing one of the strongest slumps since the economic and financial crisis of 2008/2009 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The total volume of production has fallen by 12.7% to 996,000 tons. The greatest losses can be seen in the transport sector. Germany remains the largest manufacturer of GRP with 207 kilotons.
As in previous years, the 2020 GRP market report analyzes the countries in Europe whose production quantities can be validly recorded. GRP describes all glass fiber-reinforced plastics with a thermoset matrix and, in the thermoplastics market, glass mat-reinforced thermoplastics (GMT) and long fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (LFT). The European production volume for short fiber-reinforced thermoplastics is only available as a total amount and is shown separately.
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