After experiencing a long period of stagnation, China's carbon fiber industry has entered a second phase of rapid development. With the development of new energy vehicles and other modern industries, 'black gold' has ushered in the development of the air.
As an emerging material, carbon fiber has superior properties such as high strength, light weight, high temperature resistance, creep resistance, shock resistance, and strong designability. However, high raw material costs and manufacturing costs have hindered the development of downstream applications. .
'There is currently no blow-out trend. The main reason for this is that carbon fiber is 'expensive', unless its raw materials are substantially reduced in price, or new revolutionary processes and technologies emerge. However, the current reality is that raw materials continue to rise in price, and they have not seen it. The emergence of new technologies has become an issue. As the price of acrylonitrile continues to rise, the cost of carbon fiber has also risen, which has constrained the large-scale use of carbon fiber composites. 'An industry analyst who did not wish to be named analyzed it.
Chart: Carbon fiber industry chain
Source: Serui Research
At present, the common phenomenon in the entire industrial chain of carbon fiber is: For carbon fiber production enterprises, the production cost is high. For application companies, the application cost is high.
At the end of March, domestic carbon fiber manufacturers invariably raised prices, which again triggered the feeling of 'high carbon fiber prices'.
Domestic giants raise prices again
At the end of March, the price increase of carbon fiber manufacturers broke out.
Due to the increase in price of Toray carbon fiber in Japan and the increase in domestic environmental pressure, the prices of production factors such as acrylonitrile and fuel coal have risen sharply, leading to rising domestic carbon fiber production costs.
A few days ago, carbon fiber prices were raised for carbon fiber in Zhongfu Condor, Jiangsu Hengshen, and Jilin Fangdajiang City.
Recently, Zhongfu ShenZhen issued a price adjustment letter saying that due to the environmental protection investment and the continuous increase in labor costs, the company’s production costs have increased substantially. The company has decided to implement the prices of all models of carbon fiber products on an original basis from April 1. Up 10%.
Jiangsu Hengshen mentioned in the price increase notification letter that in view of the recent impacts of carbon fiber, fabrics, raw and auxiliary raw material prices for prepreg products, and rising transportation costs, the company decided to increase carbon fiber on an original basis on March 28th. April 8, fabrics, prepreg products prices.
The price adjustment letter of Jilin Fangdajiang City Carbon Fiber Co., Ltd. stated that with the continuous increase in environmental protection investment, and the increase in costs of raw materials, packaging materials, transportation, etc., the production cost has been rising. Therefore, the company decided that it will be April 1, 2018. Since then, the price of all models has increased by 10% from the first quarter.
A number of people in the industry told New Materials Online®: 'Environmental protection policies continue to increase, raw materials and labor costs continue to increase. We expect carbon fiber prices will usher in a wave of price increases in the coming months.'
Sleepy materials
Why is the price of carbon fiber so high?
Experts in composite materials, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Du Shanyi and other industry experts said in an interview with New Materials Online® that due to high production costs, high technical requirements, monopolization of foreign technologies, imbalances in supply and demand, and other issues, the cost of domestic carbon fiber is higher than foreign.
According to Zhu Bo, deputy director of the Shandong Carbon Fiber Engineering Technology Research Center, PAN-based carbon fiber accounts for more than 90% of the total carbon fiber market. The production cost of PAN-based carbon fiber mainly includes two major parts: the production cost of PAN precursor and the cost of carbon fiber production. Is one of the key to the production of carbon fiber. Raw silk requires high purification, high strengthening, densification and homogenization. However, the quality of domestic carbon fiber is difficult to pass.
Chart: Process for preparing polypropylene-based carbon fibers and composites
Source: Serui Research
'Because most of the carbon fiber used in domestic production process is made of civil acrylic fiber, the impurity content is high. In the production process, the filaments are easily tangled and even broken, causing the carbon fiber performance to be unstable and the dispersion coefficient to be large. There is a big gap between domestic raw silk in terms of purity, strength and homogenization compared with foreign countries, which greatly restricts the quality of domestic carbon fiber products. '
Shen Zhen, senior technical consultant of Jiangsu Hengshen Fiber Materials Co., Ltd., pointed out that PAN-based high-quality raw silk is one of the key factors in the production of carbon fiber. Raw silk not only affects the quality of carbon fiber, but also affects its output and production costs.
Usually, about 51% of the carbon fiber cost ratio, the raw silk accounts for about 51%. A good quality PAN precursor yarn can produce 1kg of carbon fiber with about 2.2kg of raw yarn; while a poor quality raw yarn, it needs 2.5kg for producing 1kg of carbon fiber. Raw silk, so the use of poor quality of the original silk will inevitably increase the production cost of carbon fiber.
Chart: Carbon Fiber Cost Structure
In addition, the carbon fiber production process has high technical requirements. At present, there are only a few small-scale carbon fiber core technologies, including polymerization, spinning, and traction in the production of PAN precursors, and low-temperature carbonization in carbonization, and high-temperature carbonization. Links.
How to cross the high cost of this road?
How can we make expensive 'black gold' become close to the people on price?
'The most critical thing is scale efficiency and technological innovation.' Yan Bing, Jiangsu Science and Technology Director, Ao Sheng told New Materials Online ® to reduce public expenses and raw material procurement costs through scale, and to innovate the process.
Yan Bing introduced that currently domestic carbon fiber companies have tried to use low-cost solutions, such as the use of lignin fiber, industrial acrylic fiber, and even useful polyethylene fiber (this structure is well spinning, but carbon is not enough) and other new fibers. But these Still in the experimental stage, there is still a certain distance from industrialization. Which one can be effective still needs to be verified.
The international carbon fiber industry has a popular saying: From raw materials to carbon fiber, the price changes from 1 to 3, and carbon fiber is processed into composite materials. The price can be changed from 3 to 10.
'This sentence expresses two meanings: From carbon fiber to composite materials, more added value is added; the cost of carbon fiber in composite materials is about 20%-30%.' Industry expert Shen Tuian proposed, so-called low cost high performance Composite materials do not refer to absolute low cost, but must emphasize high performance and price ratios, and they must emphasize the comparative cost advantages under the system. For example, carbon fiber composite materials for automobiles not only need to calculate the cost of their parts themselves, but also calculate the combined installation cost. As well as the combined benefits of energy-saving emission reduction and green environmental protection effects. Otherwise, only the absolute cost of components is calculated. High-performance composite materials are certainly much higher than conventional or conventional composite materials.
According to Du Shanyi, an academician of the Academy of Engineering, if more and more carbon fiber private enterprises can design and manufacture their own equipment, they can significantly reduce the cost of carbon fiber production.
'With technical improvements, increased carbon fiber usage and improved production processes, the performance of carbon fiber will become better and better, and its cost will become lower and lower. This is not something to worry about.' Du Shanyi said.