How is the fiberglass industry developing?
Fiberglass Introduction
Fiberglass is made from minerals such as pyrophyllite, kaolin, limestone, and quartz sand as main raw materials, through processes including high-temperature melting, drawing, drying, and winding. Its monofilament diameter ranges from a few micrometers to over twenty micrometers. Besides being lightweight, high-strength, insulating, and heat-resistant, fiberglass also possesses excellent corrosion resistance, high dimensional stability, and high mechanical strength, making it widely used in energy and environmental protection, aerospace, construction, and electronics industries.
Price Trends
A research report from CITIC Securities states that leading fiberglass companies such as China Jushi, Taishan Fiberglass, International Composites, and Changhai Shares have issued price restoration letters, restoring prices for their main products. The price restoration for high-end products may be relatively higher. Since the peak season in September, the industry's supply and demand situation has improved, with high-end products experiencing continued structural high prosperity. Meanwhile, under the operational pressure brought by rising production costs and overseas tariffs, fiberglass companies are showing stronger coordination in combating internal competition, with a high degree of consensus on improving profitability through price increases. The current round of price increases for roving and electronic yarn is progressing in an orderly manner, and is expected to effectively transmit downwards with a certain degree of sustainability. Under this trend, leading companies with comprehensive advantages in high-end product structure, production costs, and market layout will have greater elasticity in both volume and profit growth, making their full-year performance improvement more promising.
CITIC Securities Research Report 2025/10/31
In short, the outlook is bullish. Leading fiberglass companies (China Jushi, Taishan Fiberglass, International Composites, and Changhai Shares) collectively issued "price increase notices" on October 30, 2025, marking the start of an orderly round of price increases in the industry during the traditional peak season. After entering the industry's peak season in September, demand recovered, especially for high-end products in wind power, thermoplastics, and PCB (benefiting from AI applications). Coupled with the industry's anti-interference efforts, this round of price increases is expected to effectively transmit downstream and have a certain degree of sustainability. The reason is that the impact of new capacity additions before the end of the year is limited, and the positive supply and demand trend remains unchanged. Fiberglass Upstream and Downstream Industry Chain
The fiberglass industry chain forms a complete chain from upstream raw materials to downstream applications. The characteristics of each link are as follows:
Upstream: Raw Materials and Energy
Main Raw Materials: Direct materials account for over 30% of the cost, including pyrophyllite, quartz sand, and sizing agents—core raw materials for producing fiberglass filaments.
Energy and Power: Account for 20-30% of the cost, mainly natural gas, electricity, and raw coal. The cost is greatly affected by fluctuations in energy prices.
Midstream: Manufacturing and Processing
Filament Production: The mainstream process is the tank furnace drawing method (simplified process, low energy consumption, low cost, less platinum-rhodium alloy usage, and mature technology). Other methods include the clay crucible method and the platinum-substitute furnace method (gradually being phased out).
Product Types: After processing, the filaments form direct yarn, ply yarn, chopped strand yarn, and fine yarn (electronic yarn), etc., with different specifications and performance corresponding to different downstream demands.
Downstream: Wide range of applications
Global Market: Concentrated in infrastructure and building materials (35%), transportation (29%), electronics and electrical (14%), industrial equipment (12%), and energy and environmental protection (10%)
China Market: Mainly driven by building materials (34%), transportation (16%), electronics and electrical (21%), wind power (14%), and industrial equipment (15%), with continued growth in demand from emerging fields such as automotive lightweighting, 5G, and photovoltaics.