CARBON FIBER DEMAND

Time to Get Technical..

Which companies are the biggest suppliers of carbon fiber?

As reported by @CompositesWorld's article ''Carbon Fiber Suppliers Gear Up for Next Gen Growth'', 161200 metric tonnes of global carbon fiber were manufactured in 2019. @Toray dominates the carbon fiber supply chain with 57,000 metric tonnes of annual capacity, which nearly equals the capacity of the next four largest suppliers combined. 😮
According to Tony Roberts, a longtime composites industry veteran, ''The global demand for carbon fiber is complicated, mainly because it is offered in such variety, size (tow counts) and mechanical capability (strength, stiffness), that making sense of the data requires a closer look at the end markets that use carbon fiber.'' 

At the time, Roberts expected that by 2025, the total carbon fiber demand will be 191,350 metric tonnes and the global nameplate carbon fiber demand, will be about 201,000 metric tonnes. Accounting for knockdown (the difference between nameplate and actual carbon fiber production) it is conceivable that the industry may see a carbon fiber shortfall in the next five years.

How corona has/will impact these estimations remains to be seen.