The global aerospace plastics market is expected to reach $10.5bn (£6.8bn) in 2018, growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9% from 2012 to 2018, according to a new report.

US market intelligence firm Transparency Market Research says the global aerospace plastics market was worth $6.2bn (£4bn) in 2011 and in terms of volume, the aerospace plastic consumption was 40.5 kilo tons in 2011. The report adds that this is expected to reach 87.8 kilo tons in 2018, growing at a CAGR of 11.7% from 2012 to 2018.

It believes that steady growth in the aviation industry, excellent strength to weight ratio, and increased adoption of aerospace plastics in aircraft designs are largely augmenting the growth of the aerospace plastics market.

Challenges to growth in this market included Environmental Protection Agency and Greenpeace regulations that are imposed upon the production of aerospace plastics It added that the high cost of raw materials, such as polyacrylonitrile, utilised in manufacturing the aerospace plastics are also acting as a restraint for this sector.

Transparency Market Research’s study examined key end-user segments - the commercial aircrafts segment, which it said accounted for 72% of market share in 2011 followed by military aircrafts, rotary aircrafts, and general aviation planes end-user segments.

Fuselage was the key application segment that accounted for over 28% of market share in 2011. Wings, empennage, flight deck and cabin areas are a few other key application segments estimated and analysed in the report.

In terms of volume, Europe dominated the global aerospace plastics market that accounted for more than 43.0% of the overall market in 2011. In Europe, Germany, France, the UK and Spain were the key regional markets and together accounted for more than 75% of the European market.

The report believes that Europe will dominate the aerospace plastics market for the next five years, owing to the supportive government policies and rising investments seen in Europe over the past three years.