If you had asked me in 2025 whether fiber optic cable equipment was selling well, I might have sighed.
But now it’s 2026, and the situation has completely changed.
Since the beginning of the year, orders have been pouring in like a floodgate opened. G.652.D bare fiber has soared from less than RMB 20 per fiber‑km in early 2025 to RMB 83.4. G.657.A2 specialty fiber is even more dramatic – up from RMB 32 per fiber‑km to RMB 240, a 650% increase. With fiber prices this high, cable manufacturers are racing to expand capacity.
Customs data tells the story even more clearly – in March 2026, fiber optic cable exports reached USD 245 million, up 263.84% year‑on‑year. Many manufacturers already have orders booked through 2028. Overseas customers aren’t haggling over prices anymore – they’re asking, “Can you deliver faster?”
CRU forecasts a compound annual growth rate of about 6.6% for global fiber optic cable demand over the next five years, but the growth rate for AI‑ and data‑center‑related cable demand is as high as 32.6%. Cable demand is shifting from FTTH (Fiber‑to‑the‑Home) to FTTG (Fiber‑to‑the‑GPU). In plain terms, cables used to be for home broadband; now they’re for GPUs in data centers. And that changes everything about what cables need to be.
“Orders Are Here, but the Production Line Isn’t Ready Yet”
With the market this hot, cable factory owners are more anxious than anyone.
One long‑time customer of mine, who has been in the cable business for over a decade, was worrying about orders just last year. This year, he called me directly: “I need to add another stranding line – can you deliver within a month?”
A month? An SZ stranding and cabling line – from raw material cutting, welding, assembly, to commissioning – normally takes 45 to 60 days. One month is tight. But the customer couldn’t wait – his overseas clients were pushing him too.
He also mentioned another headache: he used to make standard loose‑tube cables, stranding 6 to 12 tubes together. Now data centers require high‑fiber‑count cables – hundreds or even thousands of fibers integrated into a single cable. Traditional stranding machines simply can’t handle that. With so many tubes, even slight instability in pay‑off tension scraps the entire cable.
The same goes for sheathing lines. G.657 series bend‑insensitive cables demand sheath concentricity of ≥ 98% – anything below that and customers won’t accept. But many older sheathing lines lack the accuracy, leaving these high‑margin orders to competitors.
And then there’s the changeover problem. Today’s cable orders are “multi‑variety, small‑batch” – 12‑fiber loose‑tube today, 24‑fiber high‑count tomorrow, butterfly drop cable the day after. If your equipment takes 4–5 hours per changeover, you’re losing hundreds of kilometers of potential output every year.
“We at Hongkai Win by Building Solid Equipment”
I’m from Guangdong Hongkai Optical Cable Equipment Technology Co., Ltd. We started making wire and cable equipment in 2005 and formally incorporated the company in 2015. To be honest, we don’t do flashy marketing – we win by building solid equipment.
For our SZ stranding and cabling line, we guarantee pay‑off tension fluctuation ≤ ±0.4 N and pitch deviation ≤ ±0.08 mm. That’s not a boast – every machine comes with a factory test report with the actual data. Customers can measure it themselves when they receive it – what you see is what you get.
The differential gears in our SZ stranding line are high‑frequency hardened and precision‑ground to HRC 50–55 hardness. Bearings are SKF or NSK – one set lasts eight to nine years without issue. Electrical components are from Siemens, Mitsubishi, and Schneider – customers can buy replacement parts locally without waiting for us to ship from China.
On our sheathing extrusion line, we equip a laser diameter gauge with 0.2 μm accuracy. If the outer diameter deviates by just 0.01 mm, the PLC automatically adjusts the extruder speed to bring it back. Our measured concentricity is ≥ 98.6%, wall thickness tolerance ≤ 0.04 mm. For G.657 series cable sheathing requirements, our line handles them with ease.
We also include recipe storage – up to 20 different product parameters stored in the touchscreen. Changeover is one‑touch loading, done in 1.5 hours. Those machines that take half a day to change over? They’re losing at least RMB 1–2 million a year.
Our equipment has been exported to more than 15 countries and regions, with over 160 sets currently running on production lines worldwide. Customers in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe have all bought our equipment. Overseas customers worry most about not having support if equipment breaks down. We include a wear‑parts kit with every machine – spares can be delivered via DHL within 3 days. Remote video support is available with a 2‑hour response time during working hours. And we can send engineers on‑site – 12 to 18 days from installation to trial production.
“Equipment Manufacturers Must Evolve with the Cable Industry”
CRU says the cable and fiber market is transforming in multiple directions simultaneously. AI data centers have overtaken traditional telecom as the strongest growth engine, and demand for high‑fiber‑count ribbon cables is surging. The cable industry is changing – and those of us making cable equipment have to change with it.
In the past, a stranding machine could last ten years. Now, if you don’t upgrade in three years, you’re falling behind. Customers used to care about price; now they care more about accuracy, changeover speed, and whether the equipment can go overseas.
Hongkai is also doing something else – making equipment “talk.” Our standard configuration includes Siemens or Mitsubishi PLC platforms, supporting data acquisition and MES system integration. Workshops are moving from “people watching machines” to “data managing machines.” If your equipment is still “mute,” you may not even get into the supply chain of mainstream customers in the future.
If you’re building a new fiber optic cable production line, or looking for a reliable supplier of optical cable manufacturing equipment, you’re welcome to visit Hongkai. Start by reviewing our factory test report, then see the equipment running, and finally decide if it’s the right fit.
The market is booming – but those who can seize the opportunity are the ones whose equipment can keep up with the pace.
