Home / News / Positive sentiment prevails in composites market

Positive sentiment prevails in composites market

05 Feb '16

3 min read

According to a survey of the composites market, the general business situation was seen as more positive or very positive by the vast majority of respondents.

For the sixth time, trade body Composites Germany has identified current trends in the market for fibre reinforced plastics or also called composites.

A Composites Germany press release revealed that the market survey mainly looks at qualitative data concerning general market developments and also the specific developments of the various composites segments.

“Like in the previous surveys since 2013, the level of satisfaction among participating companies was generally very high, despite a slightly negative trend for certain indicators,” it added.

The proportion of optimistic assessments of the worldwide business situation in this latest survey was 82 per cent, up 2 per cent from the previous survey.

However, this indicator was much higher again for the German market, where 73 per cent of respondents assessed the general business situation as more positive and 14 per cent as very positive.

“Yet despite this highly positive underlying mood, Germany recorded a 3 per cent downturn in positive assessments compared with the prior survey,” the trade body observed.

Only a very small proportion of participants or less than 10 per cent said they expected the situation to deteriorate in the next six-month period, which however, differed between Germany, Europe and the world.

Just over a quarter of respondents expected the worldwide business situation to improve, while, this proportion was only 19 per cent for Germany.

The survey further revealed that over three quarters of all respondents described their own companies or organisations as being in a more positive or indeed very positive position.

When asked about expectations about their own business situations for the next six-month period, only a very small number expected a deterioration, whether in Germany, Europe or worldwide.

The press release also added that the investment climate continues to be very positive as many companies expected to see an increase in their own staffing levels.

In this segment the ongoing positive trend was even more clearly in evidence for investments in plants and machinery, which has risen by 7 per cent over the previous survey.

When concerning material, respondents still expected most important growth stimuli to come from CRP and regarding applications, the most hopeful segments are automotive and aviation.

When asked about regional expectations, respondents said they expected Germany to continue delivering major stimuli, while Asia and Europe outside Germany were down somewhat in significance.

Compared with the previous survey, both the general economic situation and the companies' own business situations were seen as less positive.

“These indicators, however, should not distract from a highly positive overall picture of the industry that continues to prevail,” Composites Germany noted. (AR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India