AI-driven optical fiber cable industry experiences high prosperity; listed companies in the supply chain ramp up high-end innovation

Securities Daily reporter Li Wanchenxi

Market expectations for the fiber optic cable industry’s boom and prosperity continue to climb.

On April 2, the communications cabling and supporting components sector strengthened against the trend, with the sector’s overall gain exceeding 3%. Nanjing HwaPum Technology Co., Ltd. and Sichuan Huiyuan Optical Communications Co., Ltd. hit the daily limit. Flagship stocks such as FeiTeng Optical Fiber and Cable Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “FeiTeng Optical Fiber”) also rose sharply in tandem; FeiTeng Optical Fiber even touched the daily limit during trading, setting a historical high of 338.80 yuan per share. As of that day’s close, its share price reached 332.49 yuan per share, with a cumulative gain exceeding 180% since 2026.

According to a research report released by China Jianxin Investment recently, since the third quarter of 2025, fiber optic prices in the Chinese market have continued to rise, reflecting improving demand and overall tightness in supply. Strong overseas demand and impressive export performance further confirm the robust global demand for fiber optic cables.

When Securities Daily reporter was interviewed, He Jiyong, general manager of Guangdong Cunchuang Technology Co., Ltd., said that the fiber optic cable industry is entering a long-awaited high-prosperity cycle. The industry is showing a “rise in both volume and price” trend: ordinary fiber optic prices have surged significantly; the gains for high-end specialty fibers are even more pronounced, with higher premiums; and overseas market demand has concentrated into a major breakout. As the supply-and-demand landscape continues to remain relatively tight, the industry is shifting from past low-price competition toward structural shortages. Upgrading to high-end and expanding overseas have become the core themes of this recovery.

AI-driven fiber optic cable industry: rise in both volume and price

As the core carrier of optical communications, fiber optics are the “information main arteries” for AI computing power network transmission. Data from the UK Commodity Research Institute (CRU) shows that in 2025, China’s fiber optic shipment volume reached 372 million fiber-kilometers (fiber-core kilometers), up 7.5% year over year. It accounts for 56.3% of the global total shipments, and the industry’s position in the global supply chain has been further strengthened.

“This breakout in the fiber optic cable industry is essentially different from the earlier traditional infrastructure cycle driven by fiber-to-the-home and 5G base station construction,” Liang Zhenpeng, chief consultant of Beijing Zifan Haian Marketing Consulting Co., Ltd., said in an interview with Securities Daily reporter. “AI computing power infrastructure has already become the absolute core engine driving industry growth. The demand for fiber optic cables is not just a simple increase in quantity; it is a dual breakthrough in both scale and specifications.”

Liang Zhenpeng further explained that AI data centers need to build internal interconnection networks that are non-blocking, with ultra-low latency and ultra-high speed. The model training process has extremely stringent requirements for transmission latency and loss, directly unleashing rigid demand for high-end products such as ultra-low-loss and hollow-core fiber optics. These high-end fiber optic cables have relatively higher prices and gross margin rates, becoming the key driving force behind the industry’s “rising prices.”

“Judging by the current industry situation, the fiber optic cable industry has already shown an imbalance between supply and demand, and it will be difficult to alleviate in the short term,” Zhang Xinyuan, research head of Beijing Kefangde Technology Development Co., Ltd., analyzed in an interview with Securities Daily reporter. “Upstream products such as optical rod in the fiber optic cable supply chain have a long capacity expansion cycle and high investment thresholds. In the short term, they cannot form large-scale new capacity, and the industry’s overall capacity utilization rate has consistently remained at a high level. Against the backdrop of a mismatch between supply and demand, industry inventory continues to fall, further aggravating the supply-demand imbalance.”

CRU’s data for March showed that the China market price for the global benchmark G.652.D single-mode fiber was 83.4 yuan per fiber-kilometer (excluding tax), a sharp increase from the 17.61 yuan per fiber-kilometer price that it had released in November 2025.

Meanwhile, the overseas market’s demand breakout further amplifies the “increase in volume” momentum for the fiber optic cable industry. A research report from China Jianxin Investment noted that in February this year, China exported 3,779.9 tons of optical fiber with an export value of 790 million yuan. The year-over-year increases were 63.6% and 126.8%, respectively.

According to a forecast by Orientationscience (Beijing) Information Consulting Co., Ltd., by 2027 the share of fiber optic demand contributed by AI-driven data center internal and data center interconnection (DCI) scenarios will rise sharply from less than 5% in 2024 to 35%.

Cao Zhe, chief investment officer of Beijing Aiwen Zhiyue Investment Management Co., Ltd., said in an interview with Securities Daily reporter that in the future, as AI large models iterate, computing power networks expand capacity, and 6G technology is deployed, fiber optic cable application scenarios will continue to expand—from data center interconnection and cross-border computing power transmission to fields such as industrial AI and remote healthcare. Advanced products will accelerate commercialization, and the industry’s rise-in-both-volume-and-price trend is expected to continue.

Industry chain listed companies step up efforts in high-end innovation

During the industry’s high-prosperity cycle, leading listed companies in the fiber optic cable sector are focusing on high-end innovation, strengthening technology R&D and capacity layout, and seizing opportunities for AI optical interconnection development.

A relevant person in charge of Jiangsu Hengtong Optic-Electric Co., Ltd. said that the expansion project for its AI advanced optical fiber materials R&D and manufacturing center is being advanced in an orderly manner. The plant construction for the Phase I expansion project has been successfully completed, and the project is now in the equipment installation stage. To meet the market’s continuing growth in demand for specialty fibers such as multi-mode and multi-core and hollow-core fibers, the Phase I investment will add advanced equipment such as processing, testing, and auxiliary support to produce specialty fibers including ultra-low-loss hollow-core fiber, ultra-low-loss multi-core fiber, and high-performance multi-band multi-mode fiber.

In an investor relations activity record filed earlier, FeiTeng Optical Fiber said that it has built a “three supers” (i.e., ultra-large capacity, ultra-low latency, and ultra-low loss) full-optical network solution centered on AI new-type optical fibers and aimed at intelligent computing infrastructure. For the demand for massive data flows within data centers, the company coordinates high-end multi-mode optical fibers with ultra-high-speed optical modules to achieve efficient data transmission over short distances and flexible interconnection.

A relevant person in charge of Jiangsu Zhongtian Technology Co., Ltd. said that in terms of hollow-core fiber, based on its independently mastered end-to-end capabilities—from hollow-core fiber simulation design and preform preparation through to the fiber drawing process—the company was the first in China to achieve large-scale deployment of O-band anti-resonant hollow-core fiber within AI data centers, and it has also entered pilot deployment in China Telecom’s live network.

Wu Yumeng, a research assistant at the Digital Commercial Law Research Center of Shanghai Sanda University, said in an interview with Securities Daily reporter that leading companies in the fiber optic cable sector should continue to increase R&D investment in high-end products such as hollow-core fiber, multi-core fiber, and ultra-low-loss fiber. Leveraging the advantage of a complete domestic industrial chain, they should further expand into overseas markets with strong AI computing power demand, increase global market share, and consolidate their competitive advantages.