From 12-14 March 2013, the gaze of the composites world will be fixed on Paris / France, where JEC (Paris; www.jeccomposites.com) will be holding its annual “JEC Europe” trade fair. Located on 50,000 m², the three-day event will be centred on 12 key themes: design, non-destructive testing, robotics, aeronautics, automotive, e-car, wind power, carbon, biocomposites, thermoplastics, multifunctional materials as well as the environment. The organiser expects visitor numbers at the fair to top the 32,000 registered last year.

“The global composites market represents EUR 81.6 bn in value and 9.6m t in volume for 2012. This market is growing at an average of 6% per year. Composites are used more and more often to lighten structures, aircraft and vehicles in general, thus improving energy efficiency,” said JEC group president and CEO Frédérique Mutel. She added that the sector had seen strong growth in Europe especially over the past few years, as innovation increasingly is moving towards mass-production.

The partner country at this year’s event will be Turkey, whose composites sector is one of Europe’s fastest growing – see also Plasteurope.com of 24.08.2012. Turkish composites producers processed almost 200,000 t of material in 2011, worth about EUR 1 bn. The global composites market reached EUR 81.6 bn in 2012, at a volume of 9.2m t. The average annual growth rate of the past few years has been about 6%.