en.Wedoany.com Reported - Wuhan FiberHome Ruituo Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China's FiberHome, released the world's largest optical fiber preform in Wuhan, Hubei Province, on May 13, 2026. A single preform can continuously draw up to 20,000 kilometers of optical fiber, setting a new world record for optical fiber preform specifications. According to information from the official website of the Wuhan Municipal People's Government, the product has a diameter of 0.3 meters and a length of 3.5 meters. The fiber drawn from two such preforms combined could circle the Earth more than once.
The single preform drawing length of this ultra-large specification optical fiber preform is approximately 5,000 kilometers longer than the current largest specification preforms available on the global market. Looking back at the historical milestones of global industry development, in 2016, Hengtong Optic-Electric demonstrated a 6-meter-long optical fiber preform with a single drawing length of about 15,000 kilometers, setting the world record at that time. A decade later, FiberHome has pushed the single preform drawing length from 15,000 kilometers to 20,000 kilometers, a net increase of 5,000 kilometers.
The core value of ultra-large specification optical fiber preforms lies in directly reducing optical fiber production costs. A significant increase in the drawing length of a single preform means fewer preform changes during the same batch production run, reduced process connection losses, and lower consumption of energy and auxiliary materials. A relevant person in charge at FiberHome introduced that this breakthrough will directly lower optical fiber production costs. For large-scale optical fiber network deployments—especially 5G bearer networks, FTTR (Fiber to the Room), data center interconnects, and submarine optical cable projects—preform cost accounts for a significant proportion of the total optical fiber cost. The unit cost reduction brought about by the leap in single preform production capacity will be transmitted downstream along the industry chain.
Preform manufacturing is the segment with the highest technical barriers in the optical fiber communication industry chain, directly determining the transmission performance and manufacturing cost of optical fibers. This breakthrough by FiberHome signifies that China has achieved complete independent research and development in the field of ultra-large specification preforms. The company's annual preform production capacity is approximately 2,200 tons, with plans to expand to 3,500 tons, ranking among the top three domestically and the top five globally. Its products already cover categories such as ultra-low loss optical fiber, multi-core ultra-high capacity optical fiber, and specialty optical fibers, with multiple core indicators leading globally or ranking first domestically.
From the perspective of the global optical fiber preform market supply and demand landscape, the optical fiber preform industry is currently in a phase of tight supply and demand within a new price cycle. The global optical fiber capacity shortfall in 2026 is expected to reach 180 million core-kilometers, representing a deficit ratio of 16.4%. FiberHome's release of the ultra-large specification preform comes precisely at an industry window where capacity shortfalls persist, achieving a technological foothold that has direct significance for alleviating the tight global supply of optical fiber.
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