I was reading an article about carbon-fibre on the BBC website yesterday, and it made me realise why rod blank manufacturers are struggling to get cloth - both here and the Far East. The Boeing 787 is eating it all up. I've been told that one carbon manufacturer has devoted one of their production lines to supplying Boeing for the next year, meaning that line won't be producing any of it's usual cloth - one which is used a lot in fishing rods.
Any student of economics will also realise that prices have gone up following the law of supply and demand. Boeing need the carbon, there is a limited supply, the price goes up. At the same time supply of other carbons drops, so people will pay more for them, so their prices go up too. What this means is that from April 1st I'll be paying more for my blanks. So get your orders in quick!
I think I'll go fishing to cheer myself up.
