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The Textile Magazine
August 2012
technical textiles
S
ales of textile-
based automotive
airbags are set to
increase rapidly after a
tough phase during 2008
and 2009 when global sales
of light vehicles fell sharply,
according to a report from
Textiles Intelligence.
In 2010 the world market for au-
tomotive airbags stood at 258 mil-
lion units, but by 2017 this figure
is predicted to rise to 446 million
units, representing an increase of
73.2 per cent.
Front airbags are expected to re-
main the biggest category of airbag
in 2017. However, forecasts for the
seven years to 2017 suggest that
they will form the slowest growing
category, whereas sales of side-im-
pact airbags, inflatable curtains and
knee airbags will grow considerably
faster.
As a result, the share of front air-
bags in the total market for airbags
will drop from 42.2 per cent to 37.9
per cent between 2010 and 2017,
although sales of front airbags are
still forecast to increase by 55.2 per
cent.
The fastest increase, at 539 per
cent, will be in sales of knee air-
bags. However, these will continue
to represent by far the smallest cat-
egory with sales of just 33 million
units in 2017, representing 7.4 per
cent of the market.
Sales of side-impact airbags are
set to rise by 74.7 per cent to 128
million units, representing a 28.6
per cent share of the market, while
sales of curtain airbags will in-
crease by 65.2 per cent and account
for a 26.1 per cent share.
Geographically, growth in the
mature markets of developed coun-
tries is likely to be sustained by
new regulations and technological
innovation as vehicle production in
these countries is still recovering
following the global financial crisis.