Global carbon fiber market snapshot

The Rising Star of Materials: Carbon Fiber Market Trends in 2025

In a world increasingly focused on sustainability and efficiency, carbon fiber has emerged as a material of choice across industries ranging from aerospace to renewable energy. With its exceptional strength-to-weight ratio and versatility, this high-performance material is transforming how we build everything from aircraft to sports equipment.

The Global Carbon Fiber Landscape

The global carbon fiber market is experiencing impressive growth, with consumption exceeding 170,000 tons in 2025 and expected to grow at nearly 9 percent annually through 2035. This expansion reflects carbon fiber's increasing adoption in applications where lightweight strength delivers critical advantages.

China has established itself as the dominant player in this market, accounting for over half of global demand. Its manufacturing prowess, particularly in wind turbine blades and sports equipment, has cemented its position as the market leader. Western Europe and North America follow with significant markets.

Where Carbon Fiber Makes Its Mark

Reaching for the Sky: Wind Energy

Wind turbine blades represent the largest application segment, accounting for nearly 30% of global carbon fiber consumption. As the world transitions to renewable energy, manufacturers are building longer, more efficient turbine blades that can generate more power. Carbon fiber's lightweight properties make it the ideal material for these massive structures, which can now reach lengths exceeding 100 meters.

Leading blade manufacturers like Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, and Mingyang Electric have adopted either full carbon fiber or carbon-glass hybrid designs to maximize performance while minimizing weight. This trend is expected to continue as wind energy installations expand globally, particularly in offshore applications where larger turbines deliver greater efficiency.

Flying High: Aerospace Applications

The aerospace sector is the second largest segment due to the requirement for premium aerospace-grade materials. Commercial aircraft like Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and Airbus's A350 XWB incorporate substantial amounts of carbon fiber composites, with these materials making up approximately 50% of their structures.

This adoption has revolutionized aircraft design, reducing weight and improving fuel efficiency while maintaining structural integrity. The aerospace sector's demand for carbon fiber is expected to grow steadily as air travel recovers and manufacturers continue to prioritize fuel efficiency and emissions reduction.

Consumer Products: From Rackets to Bicycles

Consumer goods, particularly sports equipment, account for around 18 percent of carbon fiber demand. From tennis rackets and golf clubs to high-performance bicycles and fishing rods, carbon fiber has transformed recreational products by offering superior performance with reduced weight.

China dominates this segment; with its integrated industrial chain and manufacturing expertise it has established itself as the production hub for carbon fiber sporting goods worldwide.

On the Road: Automotive Applications

Ground transportation applications is another key end-use segment for carbon fiber primarily driven by lightweighting initiatives in the automotive sector. Carbon fiber is increasingly used in electric vehicles, where weight reduction directly translates to extended range and improved efficiency.

While mass adoption in mainstream vehicles remains limited by cost and processing time, premium automakers like BMW, Mercedes, and Ferrari continue to incorporate carbon fiber in structural components, body panels, and even wheels to enhance performance and reduce weight.

Industry Dynamics: Challenges and Opportunities

The carbon fiber industry faces both opportunities and challenges. On one hand, growing demand across multiple sectors promises sustained growth; while structural overcapacity, particularly in China, has pushed global operating rates down creating pricing pressure and challenging profitability.

Production remains concentrated among a handful of major players, with the top ten producers controlling approximately three-quarters of global capacity. Companies like Toray Industries, Jilin Chemical Fiber Group, and Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber lead the market, with most major producers vertically integrated from precursor production to composite manufacturing.

This integration creates significant barriers to entry, as new market participants must overcome challenges related to capital investment, technical expertise, and access to proprietary technologies. The energy-intensive nature of carbon fiber production also presents challenges, with processes requiring high temperatures and long residence times, resulting in substantial energy consumption.

Innovation Driving Future Growth

Despite these challenges, innovation continues to propel the carbon fiber market forward. Recycling technologies are advancing, with companies like Fairmat in France and Hexcel in the United States investing in infrastructure to reclaim and repurpose carbon fiber from manufacturing waste and end-of-life products.

Novel applications are also emerging, from 3D printing with carbon fiber-reinforced filaments to advanced composites for hydrogen storage vessels. Companies like Boston Materials are developing specialized products such as Z-axis oriented carbon fiber films that enhance thermal and electrical conductivity for electronics applications.

Looking Ahead: A Bright Future

As industries worldwide continue to prioritize sustainability, efficiency, and performance, carbon fiber's unique properties position it for continued growth. The highest growth markets are expected to be pressure vessels for hydrogen storage, aerospace applications, and wind turbine blades, all of which benefit tremendously from carbon fiber's combination of strength and light weight.

While challenges remain in terms of cost and production complexity, ongoing advancements in manufacturing processes and recycling technologies promise to make carbon fiber more accessible and sustainable. The material's ability to enable significant weight reduction while maintaining or improving performance ensures its place as a critical component in our transition to a more efficient, sustainable future.

Whether soaring through the skies in next-generation aircraft, capturing wind energy with massive turbine blades, or enhancing the performance of everyday consumer products, carbon fiber continues to demonstrate its versatility and value across an expanding range of applications.

Find out more…

Market Insights: Carbon Fibers - 2025

This report provides analysis and forecasts to 2035 of supply and demand of the global carbon fibers market. Carbon fibers end-use demand is segmented by industrial (wind turbine blades, ground transportation, pressure vessels, other industrial), consumer goods and aerospace.

The report includes discussion regarding key market trends, as well as supply, demand and trade analysis for nine regions: North America, South America, Western Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, and China. Analysis also includes the competitive landscape, capacity listing and pricing and margin analysis by each key market.

Carbon Fibers (2023 Program)

Carbon fiber is a high-value product whose exceptional properties (lightweight and high strength) make it an increasingly sought-after material. Although carbon fibers can be manufactured from various precursors, over 98 percent of the global supply is currently made from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) with pitch being the next most common precursor. The cost of production via those two routes for plants located in the United States, Western Europe, Japan and China has been estimated for the first quarter of 2023. NexantECA also provided a high-level analysis of the business and strategic considerations and commented on the technology availability from the perspective of a company entering or expanding into the carbon fiber market. Global carbon fiber and carbon nanotube capacities are also detailed.

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