Large Filament Carbon Fiber Market Size, 2021-2025
Large Filament Carbon Fiber Market Size, 2021-2025
Large filament carbon fibres are also known as industrial grade carbon fibres, with 48K being the most common grade of large filament carbon fibres. Although the tensile strength of large filament carbon fibres is lower compared to small filament carbon fibres, they are still in increasing demand in a number of applications.
Overall, the high cost of carbon fibre materials is a major factor inhibiting demand for the material in many applications. However, as manufacturing processes become more efficient, the price of carbon fibre materials is gradually decreasing. Large tow carbon fibres are cheaper than small tow carbon fibres and in some applications a balance between cost and performance can be achieved.
Due to the high demand for this material in the automotive industry, where the production of advanced composites for lightweight automotive structural components is in high demand, manufacturers are investing heavily in increasing production of large filament bundle carbon fibre due to its high cost effectiveness. For example, in March 2014, Toray acquired Zoltek Companys Inc. which is a major manufacturer of large carbon fibre tow, and in November 2017, Solvay acquired European Carbon Fibres AG (ECF), a manufacturer of high quality large tow (50K) polyacrylonitrile (PAN) carbon fibre precursors.
Figure 2 shows the global PAN-based carbon fibre market size from 2019 as a baseline to 2025, with global PAN-based carbon fibre production of approximately 40,500 tonnes and a market size of US$1,187 million in 2020, while it is expected to reach 56,100 tonnes and US$1,589 million by 2025, both growing at a CAGR of 6.7% and 6.0% from 2020 to 2025, respectively . It is easy to find that although the market size of large filament carbon fibres is not small, the sales value is significantly lower than that of small filament carbon fibres, through comparison with the capacity and scale of small filament carbon fibres.