Almost 30,000 visitors attended this year’s JEC Composites Show (www.jeccomposites.com), held in Paris / France from 29-31 March, up from roughly 27,000 that flocked to the fair last year – see Plasteurope.com of 26.04.2010. Altogether, some 70% of the visitors came from abroad, with the South Korean share up 85% year-on-year. Austria and China, too, saw their share of visitors increase by almost 40% over 2010, followed by Sweden (31% increase), Russia (26%), Switzerland (19.6%) and India (19.4%).

According to JEC president Frédérique Mutel, the show’s cumulative returns are estimated at about EUR 673m. Looking towards the future, she said that, “with the degree of automation expanding rapidly in all countries, the composites market should experience an average global annual growth of 6%, thereby attaining levels of EUR 90 bn and 10m t in 2015.” This year, the composites market is expected to reach EUR 68 bn and 8m t.