CRU Optical Fibre Price Assessments have long been recognised as the industry’s most trusted benchmarks, built on rigorous methodology and strict adherence to transparency. By surveying market participants across the supply chain and applying consistent evaluation standards, CRU ensures that its price points reflect the most accurate picture of global bare fibre markets. This insight delves into the factors behind a historic surge in optical fibre prices, as CRU shifts its assessments from bi-monthly to monthly.
Hyperscalers and high costs drive historic price surge
Through 2023 and early 2024, global optical fibre prices languished at multiyear lows, weighed by subdued demand, aggressive price competition and oversupply. The turning point came around mid-2025, when the CRUofpi Global Index, which tracks G.652.D bare fibre spot prices across China, India, Europe and the US, began to recover after more than two years of decline. What followed was a steady climb through the second half of 2025, culminating in a historic surge in early 2026. The chart below illustrates this trajectory of the index vividly.
The index first showed signs of stabilisation in May 2025, rising modestly after 32 consecutive months of decline. By November 2025, it had climbed to 88.7 from the record low of 78.6 in March last year, supported by revived cable demand worldwide. The turning point came in January 2026, when the index surged to 107.9, driven by tightening supply conditions and rising raw material costs. Then, in March 2026, the market experienced an unprecedented triple-digit jump, propelling the index to 263.0, the sharpest rise since CRU began monitoring in 2017. This surge was not confined to one geography – it was a truly global phenomenon, with every region pulled into the rally.
The price volatility of year 2026 is the result of the factors interconnected globally. In China, the demand for G.657.A2 fibre type is continuously surging because of the fibre optic drone and data centre application. This has caused many producers to divert their fibre drawing capacity toward producing G.657.A2 fibre, where the margins are high as compared to other single mode fibre types, such as G.652.D, which is largely used is telecom applications. This tightened supply of G.652.D fibre, while rising glass preform costs due to shortages amplified the upward pressure. Because China is the world’s largest producer and exporter, its domestic price surge ultimately also cascaded into international markets.
Meanwhile, India’s market was shaped by domestic demand recovery and the projection of future demand due to the Phase 3 rollout of Bharatnet – one of the world's largest rural fibre broadband connectivity programs. Domestic shortages of optical fibre, compounded by disruptions in securing germanium and helium, pushed Indian fibre prices to double‑digit USD levels for the first time on record.
Europe, though experiencing relatively subdued local demand, was pulled upward by the rising costs of imported fibre from Asia due to limited domestic supply of fibre. In the US, even the structurally high prices of BABA compliant optical fibre moved higher, driven by acute fibre shortages amid growing hyperscaler demand for AI data centres, coupled with the limited domestic glass preform and drawing capacity already running at full utilisation.
What is striking is not just the magnitude of these price increases, but the convergence of regional developments into a truly global rally. China’s shift in fibre-type production and supply reallocation, India’s raw material constraints, Europe’s import-driven inflation, and the US’s capacity bottlenecks all reinforced one another, creating a synchronised surge that reshaped global pricing dynamics.
CRU’s transparent fibre price assessment guides global players to make strategic business decisions
Global optical fibre prices have entered a new era of volatility. By capturing global developments with a high level of granularity and depth, CRU provides subscribers with a holistic view of the global demand, supply and pricing dynamics. The recent volatility has demonstrated that fibre prices are no longer driven by isolated regional factors.
Instead, they are shaped by interconnected supply chains, raw material costs and policy environments.
CRU’s assessments are designed to reflect this complexity. Each price point is derived from transparent methodologies, ensuring subscribers are well informed about the wider market context to support their price strategy and decision making.
CRU enhanced optical fibre price assessments deliver greater clarity amid growing market complexity
The extraordinary pace of change in early 2026 has reinforced the need for more frequent and comprehensive price monitoring. Therefore, CRU is moving from bi‑monthly to monthly bare fibre price assessments for all the regions, ensuring that subscribers are informed of every inflection point as it happens. This change will provide greater visibility into short‑term volatility and allow market participants to respond more effectively to rapid changes.
Simultaneously, CRU is expanding its coverage to include G.657.A1 and G.657.A2 fibre price points in China, alongside existing assessments in Europe, India and the US. This expansion reflects the growing importance of bend‑insensitive fibres, particularly in data centre and defence applications, and acknowledges the substitution dynamics that are already reshaping supply and pricing.
With monthly frequency, expanded fibre type coverage, and a commitment to methodological rigor, CRU ensures that subscribers are equipped with the insights they need to navigate a rapidly evolving market. To find out more about our optical fibre price assessment and optical fibre and cable market data and analysis, please get in touch.
