>>Supply shortage… specialty optical fiber prices spike 10x

• Q1 export volumes across multiple optical fiber, optical cable, and optical module product lines posted double-digit YoY growth, with order books at several Chinese suppliers already booked out through 2028. Specialty optical fiber ASPs have risen 10x over the past year, yet supply still cannot keep pace with demand. Orders are up 4x YoY while capacity-constrained shipments have only doubled, prompting customers to pre-pay deposits to secure capacity allocation.

• Optical module exports — the components handling optical-to-electrical signal conversion — continue to expand in parallel. Q1 optical module exports grew ~30% YoY. The 1.6T optical module produced by one Wuhan-based supplier has emerged as the most sought-after product overseas, capable of transmitting the equivalent of 95 2GB movies per second at roughly $1,000 per unit.

• As global AI data center and compute hub buildouts accelerate and bandwidth demand grows exponentially, China’s optical communications industry is emerging as a critical node in the supply chain. Chinese firms now hold >70% of the global optical module market and >60% of the optical fiber market, and are rapidly expanding their competitive footprint in leading-edge categories including hollow-core fiber (HCF), high-speed optical modules, and ultra-high-speed interconnect modules.

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