Global demand for large tow carbon fiber is growing rapidly and my country is expected to achieve import substitution

According to the K number, carbon fiber can be divided into two categories: large tow carbon fiber and small tow carbon fiber. Below 24K is small tow carbon fiber, and above 48K is large tow carbon fiber. 1K means that a bundle of carbon fiber contains 1000 Root silk. Compared with small-tow carbon fiber, my country’s large-tow carbon fiber industry is currently relatively small, but its cost-effectiveness is high and its attention is rapidly increasing.

The production of small tow carbon fiber has high requirements on technical processes and production equipment. It has excellent performance but is expensive. In the early days, it was mainly used in the fields of aerospace and national defense. At present, the demand is also increasing in the fields of automobiles, medical equipment, sports and leisure products, etc. big. In comparison, the performance of large-tow carbon fiber is relatively weak, but it can meet the requirements in many fields, and the requirements for raw fiber quality and production equipment during production are relatively low. It has a price advantage and can be used in automobile transportation, wind power, etc. Blades, electromechanical, medical, construction and other fields.

According to the “In-depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report on Large Tow Carbon Fiber Industry 2021-2025” released by the Industrial Research Center, As technology continues to improve, the performance of large-tow carbon fiber continues to improve. For example, a product produced by Zoltek in the United States has exceeded some of its performance parameters than a small-tow carbon fiber produced by Toray, Japan. The cost-effective advantage of large-tow carbon fiber has become increasingly obvious. Therefore, global market demand is growing rapidly. From 2015 to 2020, the global demand for large tow carbon fiber has an average annual compound growth rate of 15.7%, and the market demand in 2020 is approximately 152,000 tons.

In the global carbon fiber market, Japan and the United States are in a dominant position. Specifically, looking at the large-tow carbon fiber market, the world’s leading manufacturers are mainly American companies, such as Zoltek, AKZO, Aldila, etc. The United States is the world’s largest supplier of large-tow carbon fiber and has a monopoly. In 2013, Japan’s Toray acquired Zoltek Company. Toray is the world’s largest small-tow carbon fiber manufacturer. Overall, Japan’s Toray is in a leading position in the global carbon fiber industry.

Compared with small-tow carbon fiber, large-tow carbon fiber is mainly used in the civilian field. Its sales are not restricted and my country can import it freely. Therefore, my country has always focused on the field of small-tow carbon fiber in terms of carbon fiber technology breakthroughs. At this stage, Many domestically produced small tow carbon fibers for military and aerospace applications can basically meet domestic market demand. Due to low attention, my country’s large-tow carbon fiber production capacity is weak and relied entirely on imports before 2016.

Industry analysts said that through technological process improvements and production equipment upgrades, the performance of large tow carbon fiber has been continuously improved, and in the field of large civil aircraft Demand is rising rapidly, superimposed on the needs of wind power, automobiles and other fields. my country has an urgent need for import substitution. Since 2016, the number of companies investing in large-tow carbon fiber projects in my country has increased. In 2016, Jilin Chemical Fiber started construction of 8,000 tons/year 48K large tow carbon fiber project; in 2020, Lanzhou Blue Star started construction of 25,000 tons/year 50K large tow carbon fiber project; in 2021, Shanghai Petrochemical started construction of 24,000 tons/year Raw silk, 12,000 tons/year 48K large tow carbon fiber project. my country’s large-tow carbon fiber production capacity is continuously expanding and is expected to gradually realize import substitution.