In the field of global high-end material manufacturing, carbon fiber is known as “black gold”. It is exciting that China has achieved a historic leap in this strategic industry – in 2025, China’s carbon fiber production capacity will account for 47.7% of the world’s share, becoming the world’s first in name and in reality. From aerospace to wind turbine blades, from automobile manufacturing to sports equipment, carbon fiber made in China is quietly changing the global industrial landscape.
Looking back at the development process, China’s carbon fiber industry has taken a typical counterattack. At the beginning of this century, 90% of domestic carbon fiber was imported, and high-end products were strictly blocked. Through continuous technical research and industrial investment, Chinese companies have gradually made breakthroughs in core technologies such as raw fiber preparation and high-temperature carbonization. Especially in the past five years, with the release of production capacity of leading companies such as Jilin Chemical Fiber and Zhongfu Shenying, China’s carbon fiber output has maintained an average annual growth rate of more than 30%, forming a complete industrial chain from raw fibers to composite materials.
At present, China’s carbon fiber industry is showing a trend of “both quantity and quality increase”. In the field of wind power and new energy, domestic carbon fiber has been successfully applied to super-long blades over 80 meters; in the sporting goods market, China’s carbon fiber bicycle frames account for 60% of the global market share. What is more noteworthy is that according to the forecast of US market institutions, by 2030, China’s carbon fiber production capacity will exceed 65%, which means that two tons of every three tons of carbon fiber in the world will come from China.
Of course, we must also be aware that there are still “bottleneck” problems in the field of ultra-high-strength fibers such as aviation-grade T1100 and M60J. However, it is foreseeable that with the continued increase in R&D investment and the in-depth expansion of downstream applications, China’s carbon fiber industry will surely achieve a leap from leading in scale to leading in technology. In this battle for “black gold”, China is writing new rules.