News
Price of carbon fibre rattles FT writer
Carlton Reid Aug 8 2007, 3:15pm
The Financial Times reports that demand for composites is outstripping supply
In the FT.com piece, Robert Marte, who leads the racket sports division at Head in Austria, said: "The big-time entry of the aircraft makers has made it more difficult to get hold of material. At $35 per pound, we're paying three times what we paid two years ago."
Depending on its grade, carbon fibre is 10 to 25 times the price of aluminium. Prices have risen sharply in the past two years and demand is outstripping supply.
The FT.com said: "Seeking lower prices in a market with so few suppliers is futile. Head has had to accept lower margins because tough competition makes raising racket prices impossible."
Hariolf Kottmann, head of advanced materials at SGL Group, a German carbon fibre maker and sponsor of the German cycling team at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, has turned away carmakers.
"We're not prepared to supply carbon fibre at the prices some [car] manufacturers want," he told the FT. "Demand means we can do that." The material, he thinks, will creep into top-of-the-range models in the next four years or so.
SGL plans to raise output fivefold by 2012, mainly to satisfy demand from makers of wind turbines.
By 2010, SGL believes, the eight global producers of carbon fibre will raise global output two-thirds to 45,000 tonnes.
Chinese and Saudi chemical companies have tried and failed to make it, so production is in the hands of a club of Japanese, American and European companies. Since carbon fibre has a crucial role in missile production, governments are likely to block any moves to share the technology with outsiders, said the FT.
