The forum “Plastic 2.0 | Auto Industry”, organized by Plastics Academy, was held from March 12 to 13 in Moscow, at the business site of the Research and Production Enterprise “POLYPLASTIK”, and gathered more than 60 participants. Within the business program of the event, experts and listeners tried to identify possible points of growth of this segment of the industry at all stages of production of polymer auto components, from raw materials to the final product.
“February 2025 was named by Automarketer analysts as the worst month for car sales over the past year and a half. Declining sales are negatively affecting production volumes, which together with increasing pressure from Chinese automakers is creating a serious problem. Nevertheless, the participants and experts of the Plastik 2.0 I Autoindustry forum were quite optimistic in their forecasts for the medium and long term,” says Sergey Trifonov, CEO of Plastmass Academy.
Localization of polymer automotive components was named as the main point of growth. Representatives of the Moskvich plant and the Automotive Industry Cluster revealed the topic in detail.
The company “Moskvich” noted that they fully support the trend for localization of polymer automotive components, while giving the initiative in this matter to suppliers. The Automotive Industry Cluster in its report focused on the possibilities of the Resolution No. 719 regulating the localization of automotive components. The cluster is constantly working on the formation of proposals from the automotive components industry to update this document to include additional components and materials.
The second point of growth the experts identified is the high quality of polymer materials for automotive components, which will help domestic manufacturers to withstand competition.
The speaker of POLYPLASTIC, a leading Russian developer of thermoplastic compounds for automotive industry, told about the process of development, release and production of high quality materials. The representative of the Center of Expert Support “PolymerPhysics Russland” shared information about testing and quality control of polymers for automotive industry and products made of them against the background of deficit of laboratories with wide capabilities in Russia.
The third point of growth is the development of processing technologies, new materials, and “polymerization” of the car.
The representative of FORMOTRONIK company, supplier of BOLE injection molding machines (injection molding machines), told about the possibilities of these injection molding machines for production of automotive components. The expert from the BabyPlast company analyzed the specifics of molding of mini-autocomponents on their molding machines. The employee of the Kursk Composite Materials Plant expressed his opinion that in five years reactoplastics can become a new trend in the production of auto components.
The logical conclusion of the conversation about the prospects was the business game from the SIBUR Company. As part of the game, four teams of participants had to come up with reasons why the share of polymers in a car will increase from 150 to 250 kilograms by 2035. At the end of the game, many noted that it was an incentive to think about developing in new directions.
The fourth point of growth is the development of human resource potential.
Tension in the labor market has a negative impact on the plastics processing industry in general and on manufacturers of polymer automotive components in particular. Nevertheless, with a competent approach to building processes of adaptation, motivation and continuous training of personnel, the problem can not only be solved, but also lay the foundation for further development. The tools to achieve this goal were given by the speakers of the companies “Academy of Plastics” and Aya Group Consuiting.
“We selected speakers and built the business program in such a way that representatives of all links of the car production chain gathered on one platform. Thanks to this approach we managed to discuss the widest possible range of issues, ensure effective networking and maximum benefit for the forum participants,” summarized Sergey Trifonov.