Global Carbon Fiber Demand 2025: 224,510 Tonnes, Wind Crossing 100,000 Tonnes, and China's First Majority Capacity Share

Introduction

Every year, ATA CFT Guangzhou Co. Ltd. publishes the most widely cited annual assessment of the global carbon fiber market. The 2025 edition, released in mid-2026 by general manager Lin Gang, documents a year of record volume and a structural shift in supply. Global carbon fiber demand reached 224,510 metric tonnes in 2025, up 43.8% from 156,100 tonnes in 2024. That growth was not spread evenly: wind energy alone added roughly 56,000 tonnes of demand and, for the first time, pushed past the 100,000-tonne milestone. On the supply side, China's operational capacity reached 171,080 tonnes — 52.5% of a worldwide total of 326,080 tonnes — the first time any producing country has exceeded half of global capacity.

For buyers, the report matters beyond the headline numbers. A record volume year on flat prices tells a different story from a shortage-driven price spike. It signals a market where volume is expanding faster than value, where Chinese capacity is reshaping competition, and where the premium segments — aerospace, defense, pressure vessels — behave very differently from the volume grades. This article walks through the key figures, the segment-level detail, and the practical implications for anyone sourcing carbon fiber.

Wind Energy Crosses 100,000 Tonnes

The single biggest story in the 2025 report is wind energy. Wind turbine blade applications consumed 100,000 metric tonnes of carbon fiber, accounting for 44.5% of total global demand — the first time the sector has crossed the 100,000-tonne threshold. Wind demand had already grown 120% in 2024; the report records a further 127.3% increase in 2025, making wind the dominant growth engine of the entire industry. Chinese wind manufacturers were at the center of this surge, consuming roughly 64,000 tonnes in total, of which about 40,000 tonnes went into domestically produced blades and some 24,000 tonnes were processed into pultruded carbon spar caps and exported.

The growth mechanism is well understood: as blade lengths pass 100 meters, carbon spar caps become the economically rational choice over all-glass designs because the added stiffness-to-weight ratio reduces gravity-induced loads on the blade root. Each new ultra-long blade platform pulls a step-change volume of carbon fiber, and the 2024-2025 numbers show that step change arriving at industrial scale. The report notes that even this volume remains a small share of total blade platforms, implying substantial headroom if carbon adoption extends across the model range.

A Revenue Record on Flat Prices

Global carbon fiber sales reached $5.44 billion in 2025, up 26.3% from $4.31 billion in 2024, with average prices remaining broadly flat — the entire gain came from volume, not price. That flat pricing is itself a competitive statement: it reflects the pressure that large new Chinese capacity places on commodity-grade pricing, and it separates the volume business from the value business. Aerospace and defense, for example, represented just 13.4% of demand by volume but 44.1% of revenue, with market prices near $80 per kilogram against roughly $12 per kilogram for wind-grade fiber. The aero-defense segment grew 13.6% in 2025, driven by UAVs, commercial space, and a partial recovery in commercial aviation.

Other segments rounded out the year. Sports and leisure returned to steady growth after several volatile years, rising 9.8% to 31,300 tonnes. Downstream, global CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced polymer) demand reached 366,800 tonnes, up 38.6% from 264,700 tonnes in 2024, while CFRP revenue grew 15.6% to $30.35 billion — wind accounted for 38.9% of CFRP volume and aerospace and defense for 60.8% of CFRP revenue.

China's Capacity Share Passes Half for the First Time

On the supply side, 2025 marked a decisive shift in the competitive landscape. China's operational carbon fiber capacity reached 171,080 tonnes — 52.5% of the global total of 326,080 tonnes — the first time China has exceeded half of worldwide capacity. Global capacity grew 5.5% from 309,000 tonnes in 2024, and the additions came almost entirely from China and Toray. The most symbolic development: Jilin Chemical Fiber, on the back of wind-driven demand, overtook Toray to become the world's largest carbon fiber producer, adding 20,000 tonnes of capacity during the year. Further expansion is already announced, including seven new Jilin lines scheduled for 2026 that could bring its total to 100,000 tonnes, plus a 30,000-tonne Zhongfu Shenying expansion and Shanghai Petrochemical's 30,000-tonne large-tow program.

Domestic Chinese demand reached 132,027 tonnes in 2025, up 57.1% from 84,062 tonnes in 2024, with imports of 18,627 tonnes — just 14.1% of demand — and domestic fiber supplying the remaining 85.9%. The trend lines are consistent: Chinese capacity, Chinese demand, and Chinese self-sufficiency are all rising together, while the share of imported fiber in the Chinese market keeps shrinking. The table below summarizes the report's headline metrics:

Metric (2025 vs 2024)	2024	2025	Change
Global carbon fiber demand	156,100 t	224,510 t	+43.8%
Wind energy demand	~44,000 t	100,000 t	+127.3%
Global sales revenue	$4.31 B	$5.44 B	+26.3%
CFRP demand	264,700 t	366,800 t	+38.6%
China operational capacity	150,130 t	171,080 t	+14.0%
Global operational capacity	309,000 t	326,080 t	+5.5%
China share of global capacity	48.6%	52.5%	First majority

What the Numbers Mean for Carbon Fiber Buyers

For a procurement team or an engineering department specifying carbon fiber, the 2025 report suggests several practical takeaways:

• Commodity grades are abundant: 224,510 tonnes of demand against 326,080 tonnes of operational capacity leaves meaningful headroom, and flat prices indicate that supply is not the constraint. Standard-modulus, large-tow grades are a buyer's market.
• The value is in qualification, not spot price: With a 6:1 gap between aero-defense and wind pricing, the real leverage is in holding qualifications for high-value applications and negotiating stable contracts rather than chasing marginal spot discounts.
• Source diversification matters: A 52.5% Chinese capacity share concentrates a majority of supply in one region. Dual sourcing across geographies — including Western producers that are restructuring their portfolios — is a reasonable hedge for strategic programs.
• Watch the wind cycle: Wind is now the largest demand segment, so blade production schedules, offshore auction pipelines, and Chinese wind OEM output have become leading indicators for carbon fiber pricing pressure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did carbon fiber demand grow 43.8% in 2025?

The growth was overwhelmingly wind-driven: wind energy demand rose 127.3% to 100,000 tonnes, crossing the 100,000-tonne milestone for the first time and accounting for 44.5% of total demand. Longer turbine blades using carbon spar caps pulled in the additional volume, with Chinese wind manufacturers alone consuming roughly 64,000 tonnes. The rest of the growth came from a 13.6% gain in aerospace and defense, a 9.8% recovery in sports and leisure, and continued expansion in pressure vessels and other industrial applications.

What does a 52.5% Chinese capacity share mean for pricing?

A majority capacity share held by any single region tends to compress pricing in commodity grades, because low-cost producers set the marginal price for standard-modulus fiber. That is consistent with the report's finding that average prices stayed flat despite record volume. The counterweight is that premium grades — aerospace, defense, high-modulus and high-strength fiber — are priced on qualification and performance rather than capacity, and those segments continue to command prices several times higher than wind-grade fiber.

Is 2025's record growth sustainable?

The report itself frames wind growth as having substantial headroom: the 100,000 tonnes consumed in 2025 still represents a small share of total blade platforms, and offshore wind pipelines remain strong. However, growth of 127.3% in a single year is unlikely to repeat at the same rate, and wind capacity additions are lumpy. A more realistic expectation is continued solid growth with periodic step-changes as new ultra-long blade platforms are industrialized, alongside steady gains in aerospace, pressure vessels, and emerging applications.

Conclusion

The ATA 2025 report describes an industry at a turning point: record demand, a wind sector that has become the largest single consumer of carbon fiber, and a supply base where China holds a majority share for the first time. The combination of abundant capacity, flat pricing, and a widening gap between commodity and premium grades rewards buyers who qualify multiple sources, plan ahead, and buy on specification rather than spot price. For suppliers of carbon fiber and composite materials, the report is a reminder that volume leadership and value leadership are now two different games.

Whether you are sourcing standard-modulus tow for industrial applications or high-performance grades for aerospace, pressure vessels, and wind energy, matching the right fiber to the right specification is the decisive step. Browse our carbon fiber and composite material range, or contact our engineering team to discuss fiber grades, qualification data, and supply planning for your program.