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Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2026-03-07 Origin: Site
As of early March 2026, the G657A2 optical fiber market is experiencing a historic period of tight supply-demand balance and a price surge cycle: Global demand is exploding, driven by the triple engines of AI computing power, FTTH deepening, and military drones, while the supply side is constrained by the rigid capacity of optical fiber preforms and compounded by structural capacity tilt, leading to a sustained price spike since the end of 2025. The current market price is approximately 210–230 CNY (equal to $27-$30) per fiber-kilometer, representing a nearly 557% increase from the beginning of the year.
G657A2 is a bend-insensitive single-mode fiber with small bending radius, low loss, and high reliability. It is the fiber of choice for current FTTH, Data Center Interconnect (DCI), 5G base stations, Industrial Internet, and military drones.
Global Annual Demand: Expected to reach 80 million fiber-kilometers in 2026, with a year-on-year growth rate exceeding 60%.
Regional Pattern:
North America: The core region for AI data centers, accounting for approximately 40% of demand, with the highest prices.
China: The world's largest producer (CR4 market share 78.5%), and simultaneously a region with triple demand drivers: FTTH, computing power, and exports.
Emerging Markets: Broadband construction in Africa and Latin America, with import growth averaging 15%+ annually.
Prices (March 2026):
Spot Market Price: 210–230 CNY (equal to $27-$30) per fiber-kilometer (compared to approximately 35 CNY ($4.6) at the end of 2025, a 557% increase).
Long-term Contract Price: 180–200 CNY ($24-$26) per fiber-kilometer, commanding a 100%+ premium over standard G652D (85–120 CNY).
Overseas Quotation: Approximately 28–32 USD per fiber-kilometer.
Global CR5: YOFC, Hengtong, Zhongtian, FiberHome, Corning, collectively holding 85%+ of the market share.
China CR4: YOFC, Hengtong, Zhongtian, FiberHome, with a 58.5% global market share, dominating pricing power.
Capacity Status: Global full production and sales, with leading enterprises operating preform/drawing lines at 100% capacity, and order backlogs extending 3–6 months.
A single 10,000-GPU AI smart computing center consumes 3–5 times the fiber of a traditional data center, requiring tens of thousands of fiber-kilometers for internal interconnection.
AI-driven fiber demand share: <5% in 2024 → projected to reach 35% by 2027.
Long-term contracts locked by North American giants: Meta's 6 billion USD multi-year agreement with Corning is equivalent to Corning's entire 2025 optical communication revenue.
FTTH deployment continues in China, Southeast Asia, and Europe, with G657A2 as the standard for in-home/building cabling.
5G base station fronthaul/midhaul and 6G pre-research drive sustained demand for high-density, bend-resistant fibers.
Driven by the Russia-Ukraine conflict: A single FPV drone requires 20–40 kilometers of G657A2, creating a military consumable-level demand.
Increased stockpiling by Europe and the U.S. further squeezes global supply.
Preforms account for 70%+ of fiber costs, with an expansion cycle of 18–24 months, high technical barriers, and large investment requirements.
Global preform capacity is highly concentrated (CR5 holds 80%), already operating at full capacity by the end of 2025, with new capacity expected to be released no earlier than 2027.
In 2026, global effective preform capacity is only about 11,000 tons, corresponding to 330 million fiber-kilometers of fiber, while total demand is 577 million fiber-kilometers, creating a 16%+ supply gap.
Manufacturers prioritize allocating preform/drawing capacity to high-margin premium fibers like G657A2 and G654.E.
G657A2 drawing efficiency is 10%–15% lower than G652D, consuming more capacity for the same demand, further squeezing standard fiber supply.
A deep price war from 2019–2024 led to the exit of numerous small and medium-sized capacities, leaving only leading players.
Manufacturers are extremely cautious about expansion, with no large-scale new plans, relying only on production line speed-ups and automation upgrades for minor efficiency gains (approximately 5%–10%).
Prices of core preform materials: high-purity quartz sand, germanium tetrachloride, and rare metals (germanium, gallium) have risen, driving up production costs.
Increases in energy, logistics, and labor costs further compress profit margins, supporting price hikes.
Starting in 2026, operator procurement has seen maximum bidding prices, bid cancellations, and suspensions, ending the price war and establishing seller-dominated pricing.
Significant premiums in the spot market, with spot prices far exceeding long-term contract prices, exacerbating panic buying.
Prices: Expected to remain high and volatile upward throughout 2026, gradually stabilizing and falling in 2027 with the release of new preform capacity, but unlikely to return to low levels.
Supply and Demand: The supply gap will continue to widen in 2026, gradually easing in the second half of 2027.
Landscape: Market concentration among leading enterprises will further increase, with small and medium-sized manufacturers accelerating their exit; Chinese manufacturers' global market share will continue to expand.
Technology: G657A2 will evolve toward higher bend resistance and lower loss, forming differentiated competition with G654.E and hollow-core fibers.
The G657A2 price surge is a result of the resonance of demand explosion, supply rigidity, rising costs, and a shift in pricing power, not short-term speculation, but a reflection of a complete reversal of the industry's supply-demand structure. Prices will remain high in the short term (1–2 years), with 2027 being a critical inflection point.
