Aerospace and defense c-class parts market includes low cost and high volume commodity parts such as fasteners and bearings. C-class aerospace parts are segmented into four major heads which are hardware components, bearings, electronic components and machined parts for both commercial and military aircraft. C-class parts are small in size and have low cost, but are one of the most critical components used in an aircraft. They are situated across the aircraft including fuselage, wings, landing gear fittings, control surfaces, flight control actuating systems, and air-intake areas near the engine.
Bearings mainly include airframe control bearings, rod ends, ball bearings, needle roller bearings, bushings, and precision bearings. Electronic components include mainly connectors, relays, switches, circuit breakers, and lighted products. Machined parts mainly include brackets, milled parts, shims, stampings, and turned parts.
Changing dynamics in the global aerospace and defense industry have an impact on the c-class parts market. For instance, major OEMs, such as Boeing and Airbus are incorporating high amount of composite materials in their next generation aircraft. Composites rich aircraft generally require fewer c-class parts than an aircraft made of traditional non-composite materials. The parts used in next generation aircraft are generally priced higher than c-class aerospace parts used in non-composite aircraft structures.
The global aerospace & defense c-class parts market offers a healthy growth opportunity of 4.4% CAGR during the forecast period of 2016 to 2021 and reach US$ 12.1 billion. Increasing commercial and regional aircraft deliveries, technology advancement, and growing aerospace & defense fleet size are the key drivers in the global aerospace & defense C-class parts market.
Hardware components dominate the global aerospace & defense c-class parts market in 2015, followed by bearings, electronic components, and machined parts. North America is expected to remain the leading region in the aerospace & defense c-class parts market since it is the manufacturing hub of major tier players and aerospace & defense OEMs.
The supply chain of this market comprises raw material manufacturers, c-class part manufacturers, distributors, tier players, aerospace OEMs, and airline companies. The key distributors are Wesco Aircraft, Kellstrom industries, and Aviall Services and the key aerospace OEMs are Boeing, Airbus, Comac, Bombardier, Embraer, ATR, Lockheed Martin, Cessna, and Gulfstream.
The key aerospace & defense c-class part manufacturers are Precision Casts Parts (PCC) Fasteners, Arconic Fastening Systems, Lisi Aerospace, RBC Bearings, Stanley Black & Deker, Eaton Corporation, and Amphenol Corporation. New product development, collaboration with tier players and OEMs, and long term contacts are the key strategies adopted by the major players to gain competitive edge in the market.