At least for a while, the company is not selling all of its productive capacity, and order patterns for carbon fiber are slower than expected. We may have misread how quickly the new utilizations are coming to pass. I'm not sure the stock won't be under some more pressure. Until recent quarters, the carbon fiber industry was all sold out without any extra capacity. Schneider said it appears that companies stockpiled the fiber and are now working off their inventory, not needing to buy additional fiber.
Carbon fiber is stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum.
You have to give the company credit. Zoltek has established the commercial market for fibers. Schneider said there are too many new uses being tested and too many applications being evaluated to think that the overall carbon fiber industry will not have additional demand in the future. He said some of the utilizations being tested include infrastructure applications like bridge decking and the possible of wrapping for structural columns. In the building industry, it can be used to laminate wood.