Corning general manager says current fiber lead times are ‘much longer’ than normal

Corning isn’t specifying how long its lead times are for its fiber products, but Mike Bell, senior vice president and general manager of Corning Optical Communications, stated, “Our normal lead time, what we would prefer our lead time to be, is a month. It’s much longer than that right now.” Bell said, “I’ve been in this business for 30 years, and I’ve never seen demand on the scale we’re seeing now. And I’ve never seen us invest in capacity as broadly as we’re doing right now, and frankly as the industry is doing right now.” Corning breaks its fiber business into two categories: optical fiber and the optical cables that house the optical fiber. In September 2021, Corning announced that it is working to support AT&T’s needs by investing $150 million in a new optical cable manufacturing plant in North Carolina, where it will add about 200 jobs. Earlier in 2021, Corning also announced plans to build a new optical fiber manufacturing facility in Poland. “That’s driven by growing demand for optical fiber products in Europe and surrounding regions,” said Bell. “As we add more fiber capacity in other places that will free up US capacity for US demand.” Getting back to the lead times for both optical fiber and optical cable, Bell said there are additional variables at play. For example, if Corning invests heavily in more capacity, but other fiber providers don’t, then more demand comes to Corning, which in turn increases lead times. Bell is optimistic that lead times are going to improve through 2022 and even further into 2023.