Future directions and trends of the carbon fibre market

Carbon fibre production and its postprocessing is a sub-sector of the chemical industry. With the beginning of carbon fibre production in 1971, the market for those fibres is rather young. Commercial production of carbon fibres began in Japan and was initiated by companies like Toray, Toho Rayon (nowadays: Toho Tenax) and Mitsubishi. These companies still are among the biggest producers in the world. During the mid-1980s, US and European companies (e.g. Zoltek, Cytec and Hexcel) also have begun the production of carbon fibres, and there is also one important established producer (Formosa Plastics) from Taiwan. Although the latest developments show that more and more enterprises from related branches, most notably from polyacrylonitrile fibre production, and other regions are aiming at entering the carbon fibre market. Today polyacrylonitrile based carbon fibre production is dominated by 8 large companies. These 8 companies have more than 88 % of the worldwide production capacity of carbon fibres. Seen from a historical perspective, the main development direction of carbon fibres was maximizing of strength and Young's modulus and not mainly on the properties, which are needed for a proper CFRP layout. Furthermore, the required fibre properties are even unidentified in some cases.