The development of carbon fiber has gone through several stages. From 1971 to 1985, carbon fiber entered the "nurturing period", and Japan's Toray Corporation took the lead in achieving industrial-scale production, which was applied to fishing rods and golf clubs. Subsequently, carbon fiber emerged in the aerospace field and was applied to the secondary load-bearing components of Boeing aircraft. By the early 1990s, the market entered the "crawling period" and was applied in sports equipment and aerospace fields. From 1990 to 1995, the aviation market was depressed, and the development of the carbon fiber market slowed down and entered the "toddling period". From 1996 to 2002, with the recovery of the civil aviation market, driven by the application of carbon fiber in the main load-bearing structure of Boeing B777, the market entered the "walking period". From 2003 to 2022, the carbon fiber market ushered in the "running period", marked by the Boeing B787 and Airbus A320 composite aircraft plans, and the proportion of carbon fiber applications increased significantly. At the same time, with the rise of industrial applications such as wind power, the carbon fiber market forecast sales to increase significantly, but the actual market performance in 2023 did not meet expectations.
In 2023, the global carbon fiber production capacity will increase to 290,000 tons/year, an increase of 12.3% from 259,000 tons/year in 2022. This is mainly due to the contribution of new production capacity in countries such as China, South Korea and Turkey. At present, the world's major carbon fiber manufacturers include Toray/Zoltek, Jilin Chemical Fiber, Zhongfu Shenying, Hershey, Toho/Teijin, Mitsubishi Rayon, SGL, Xinchuang Carbon Valley, Baojing, Korea Hyosung and Shanghai Petrochemical.
In 2023, the carbon fiber production capacity of mainland China will reach 138,000 tons/year, and the global share will jump to 47.7%, ranking first in the world.
In the field of high-performance small tows, Toray/Zoltek, Toho/Teijin and others have certain advantages in production capacity scale and product performance. In recent years, my country's enterprises represented by Guangwei Composites, Zhongjian Technology and Taigang Steel Technology have also made great breakthroughs. In the field of low-cost large tow, Toray/Zoltek, Mitsubishi Rayon and SGL are the world's leading manufacturers. my country's Jilin Chemical Fiber, Shanghai Petrochemical, Baojing and other enterprises have reached the same production capacity scale as foreign countries.
In 2023, the global carbon fiber market demand will be 115,000 tons, a decrease of 14.8% from the previous year. The main reason is the unfavorable market promotion in the wind power field. In the future, as carbon fiber is promoted in wind power, new energy vehicles and drones, the demand for carbon fiber will continue to grow rapidly.
