Lucintel, a company that provides management consulting and market research in the composites fields has analyzed the carbon fiber market and published a research report entitled “Growth Opportunities in the Carbon Fiber Market 2009-2014.”  There’s some really interesting material worth writing about on here that I’d like to mention.  We have an interesting mix of Carbon Fiber Gear readers, from the pure carbon fiber enthusiast to industry insiders…and I’d love to hear your thoughts about where you see carbon fiber growth (please post your comments below).

The Carbon Fiber Market Through Today

Carbon fiber began to to be used in commercial production in the 1960’s mainly for the aerospace industry.  At the time the price per pound was extremely expensive ($150/lb).  From that point on we’ve seen more commercial applications use the material, while the cost has dropped down to the $5/lb range.

Popular applications today include commercial aircrafts (up to 50% of the structure uses carbon fiber), recreational (50% penetration in golf and fishing pole as units), and industrial.  There is some important history that has occurred over the last 4-5 years in the carbon fiber market.  During 2005-2006 there was a carbon fiber shortage, but that has literally done a 180 due to the global economic recession.

Carbon fiber suppliers have noticed a dip in demand, and has noticeably slipped in just the past six months.  Due to this, the supply from suppliers has started to stockpile and material can generally be had with low lead times.

Future Growth

Lucintel is estimating that the carbon fiber market will reach $2.4 billion in 2014, and they have identified the best and worst performing markets from last year.  Even with the lower demand, they still expect that the carbon fiber market will grow 9.8%, although it depends on the exact application.  Some applications were estimated to have negative growth, while others were seen to have as high as 29% growth.

We have not read the report, nor do we profit in any way from sales of the report, we simply thought the press release done by Lucintel had some interesting info. They list the report to have the following benefits:

• Properties and price comparison of various kinds of carbon fiber. Current and future price ($ / lb) in aero and non-aero grade carbon fiber.
• Global carbon fiber market analysis with special emphasis on precursor. Market estimates for PAN based, Pitch based carbon fiber.
• Regional market analyses. Carbon fiber shipments and production in North America, Europe and Rest of World and as well as in various countries in above regions.
• Carbon fiber shipments in various markets and applications. Applications include CNG tank, transportation, marine, infrastructure, wind blade etc. in the industrial market; regional jet, general aviation, commercial aviation, defense, space, and helicopter in the aerospace market; golf, racket, skis and snowboard, fishing pole and others in the sporting goods market. The market for these is slated to grow to $19 billion by 2014.
• Trends (2003-2008) for the overall carbon fiber market and for its categories such as PAN based and pitch based carbon fiber. Few applications identified with more than 10% growth forecast over the next 5 years.
• Forecasts (2009-2014) for various market segment and applications in these segments.
• Carbon fiber market distribution by manufacturing processes such as filament winding, hand lay-up, pultrusion, autoclave, ATL, RTM and more.
• Manufacturing processes for PAN and pitch based carbon fiber.
• About 290 figures/charts and 65 tables in this 421-page market report to help you make confident business decisions.

You can get more information on the repor by e-mailing [email protected] or calling Lucintel at 972-620-8888.