source:
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/06/07/ruh-roh-carbon-fiber-in-short-supply/
Looks like it might take a few extra shifts of flipping burgers to save up for that carbon fiber hood you've had your eye on, bucko. USA Today is reporting that carbon fiber demand has gone way up recently, causing prices to quadruple in some cases. They blame the price surge on demand for new jetliners, like Boeing's 787 and its primary rival, the Airbus A350, which use significant amounts of CF, particularly for their wings. The cost of carbon fiber has jumped from $5 a pound just a few years ago, to a whopping $20 a pound today. We kind of figured it was sold by the yard rather than by the pound, but that's neither here nor there. To cope with the increased demand, carbon fiber manufacturers are adding production capacity, but that will take time. And in the meantime we'll have to keep paying more.
To put this price increase in perspective, they point out how specialty manufacturer Saleen had to raise the price of its S7 supercar by $25,000 for 2007. That might not seem like a big jump on a car that already retails for $580,000, but that increase alone could get you a Mazdaspeed3. And the tuner crowd could be especially hard hit, with costs more than doubling for products like hoods, mirrors, spoilers, and trim. Of course, faux fiber will probably be even more popular than ever as a result, which is the dark side to this story. It's probably the extra time to get their carbon fix more than the extra money it costs to buy that will effect most shoppers, however. Retailers are saying some product delivery times are up 4-6 weeks as a result of the extra demand.
that was my first thought....
