The statistics working group collected data about the quantities of carbon fibers shipped from Japan in 2023, and released the summary.
Carbon fiber shipments in 2023 decreased significantly by 26.6% from the previous year to 18,249 tons, the first decrease in two years. This is the first time in nine years since 2014 that shipments have fallen below 20,000 tons. In addition, there was a double-digit decrease in both the first and second half. The increase/decrease trends over the past five years are as follows:
Annual Shipment Growth Rate (%)
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Growth Rate (%) | 0.5 | -17.0 | 15.9 | 3.9 | -26.6 |
Annual Quantity of Shipping (tons/year)
Domestic sales were down 1.2%, while exports fell sharply by 30.8%.
Domestically, aerospace products increased by 90.6%, although still not reaching pre-COVID levels, while sports products were down 24.2% and industrial products were down 10.8%. Exports increased for the second consecutive year, up 34.7% for aerospace products, which saw sluggish sales to aircraft due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but sports products were down 21.6% and industrial products were down 38.7%.
The export ratio was 80.8%, down 5.0 points from the previous year.
