JEC Group looks ahead to JEC World 2025

Eric Pierrejean, CEO of JEC Group (Paris, France), the organizers of the JEC World international composites trade show, recently sat down with CW to discuss the event’s upcoming 60^th anniversary. With six decades of history behind it, JEC World has evolved alongside the rapidly growing composites industry, becoming a global meeting point for this dynamic sector. In our conversation, Pierrejean shares insights into the industry’s recent history, the key trends and challenges it faces today, and the highly anticipated innovations and collaborations that will be showcased next year at JEC World 2025 as the event aims to “push the limits” of what’s possible with composite materials.

This year marks an important milestone for JEC World. Can you talk about its significance?

JEC World started in 1965, so we’ll be celebrating the 60^th anniversary of the event, which began as a composite conference in the 60s and then evolved to become JEC World [as it is known] today. It’s come a long way and it mirrors the growth of the industry. When I say we are celebrating, we’re not just celebrating JEC World. We are celebrating the growth of the industry and what it has become over six decades. I think it’s a good point in time to highlight that.

What do you think are some of the biggest changes that have occurred in the industry during that time?

When we look at statistics about the volume of composites production over the years, the great thing you see is that the industry is regularly opening new markets. Composites have seen greater and faster adoption in many sectors, and you regularly have new doors opening.

For example, there was no wind energy as we know it today in the 1960s — today, it’s a huge market for the industry. More recently are hydrogen pressure vessels and all the technologies involved with hydrogen-powered vehicles — this is a new market growing.

Over 60 years, the industry has been able to address new end user markets through various properties. Of course, lightweighting is a key one, but composites have so much more than that to offer, such as corrosion resistance and wave transparency for telecommunications.

Another area of growth has been the globalization of the industry. You have players from all over the world and JEC World in Paris has become the meeting point for this global industry, with more than 100 countries represented along the value chain.

What are some of the biggest challenges and opportunities for this industry at this moment?

There’s no doubt that sustainability has become the number one topic — and I mean all aspects of sustainability. Composites have always been enablers of sustainable solutions. For example, there would be no wind energy as it is today without composites. Another contribution — the ability to have longer-lasting infrastructures and sustainable construction within the civil engineering industry. So, composites have been able to deliver the promise of more sustainable solutions.

On the other hand, for a few years now, the topic of being sustainable and having a sustainable industry has become a top priority. We’ve seen so many initiatives including recycling, repairing, the introduction of alternative matrices and fibers, and innovative process technologies to reduce energy and material waste. These efforts have been accelerating.

There is also new vocabulary. Words and acronyms like LCA [life cycle assessment], mass balance and EPDs [environmental product declarations] are now hot topics. The industry must not only work on its technologies but also on these ways of calculating our carbon footprint and reducing it, because the end users are challenging us.

In some areas you have landfill bans, which means that you have to promote recycling or recyclable solutions for products. If you have new taxes like a carbon border adjustment mechanism [CBAM], this means that you will have to calculate and evaluate your CO₂ footprint. These are new topics and a key driver of where our industry is heading.

What is the theme of JEC World 2025?

For this 60^th installment of the event, the motto is “Pushing the Limits.” We want to highlight people who are going beyond the current boundaries of what is possible. This will likely be showcased via new performance and new sustainable solutions, as well as making things that were once thought impossible — like flying around the world in a hydrogen plane or getting boats to sail at more than 100 kilometers per hour [recently achieved by America’s Cup Sailboats]. We want to highlight how composites are enabling us to push the limits, as well as how composites are pushing their own limits in terms of technical features and specifications.

These advancements can only happen with teamwork, because when you have to calculate and evaluate the CO₂ footprint of a final product — whether it’s a car, a boat or a plane — there’s a long chain of supply that has to be considered. So there’s effort to be done by the whole industry to get this data, to measure and to optimize these elements.

Can you talk about the ways JEC World fosters collaboration and the ability to share some of those ideas?

We’ve always celebrated teamwork. For example, when we created the JEC Innovation Awards program more than 25 years ago, there was (and is) a very strong focus on teamwork and collaborative efforts. It’s not only about having a new product on the market — there are plenty of those. We highlight the collaborative efforts and the products that have been developed by a team of experts, from raw materials to equipment manufacturers, in order to make it possible. Some say by working together you can go further than being alone, and I think it’s really true in this industry.

Also, we try to facilitate, as much as possible, connections at the global level — connections with different cultures and different countries. Innovation is everywhere. One of JEC’s greatest achievements for many years has been our curiosity, looking at solutions coming from Asia, Australia, Europe, the U.S. and so on. This relentless quest for innovations and new players has contributed to the success of the event because we bring them together.

What are some trends in the composites industry that stand to make the largest impact the next couple of decades?

One is addressing these new sustainability challenges and being able to meet the demands of OEMs. Take, for example, recycled content. How much recycled content will we have in the future? We’ve been talking about virgin fibers for many years, for decades. But there’s a growing market for intermediate products or even fibers that are recycled. We see more and more of that kind of demand coming, and an increasing number of exhibitors are proposing new solutions in that area.

I would also say there is some evolution in terms of standards, especially recently in the construction sector. For example, the ACI [American Concrete Institute] standards for composite rebar in the U.S. and in Europe, and the upcoming Eurocodes in the EU, are opening a huge market for application of more composites in construction. I think these changing regulatory standards can help a lot in sectors where composites market share is still quite low.

You also have sectors that need a lot of education and a lot of information about the properties and benefits of composites — which we convey — to open the market. It requires teamwork to find the best solutions with some very ambitious targets in mind.

In addition, there’s the topic of data and AI. I think of the potential of, let’s say, computing new molecules, simulating new products, monitoring manufacturing, creating the digital passport of products, managing the end of life of products and so on. This potential is huge. I often say that this is the invisible part of the industry. You have the materials, you have the equipment, but you also have this data world, which is very important. I believe AI will influence and help us to accelerate and be more efficient at all points of the value chain.

The run-up to JEC World is always an exciting time. Is there something you’re particularly looking forward to?

I always look forward to receiving the awards submissions,and I’m always excited when we receive the submissions of startups. There are so many startups in the industry, and they know that JEC World is a place to gain awareness — to build connections with the world of composites. They are part of the future of the industry. When we introduced the startup booster in 2017, we had the vision that there are entrepreneurs and innovators that have created companies that will fuel the discussion and the technology flow in the industry. I’m happy to see that looking back at this — let’s say the Hall of Fame of startups — we’ve been able to highlight some of the rising stars in the industry.

To see the awards, to see the achievements, as well as to see the new entrepreneurs — that all feeds into the collaborative nature and new ideas at JEC World.