(Yicai Global) Sept. 17 -- China's Rongrong New Material Technology is looking to replace overseas suppliers of one type of heat-resistant fibers, used in the fields of aerospace and semiconductors.

Rongrong has been testing continuous aluminum oxide fibers and expects to start mass-producing the durable material in the first quarter of 2021, the Shanghai-based firm said in a statement yesterday.

The fiber, made mostly of aluminum oxide that has a melting point of about 2,050 Celsius degrees, can be used in airplane engine parts and sintering furnaces.

It took 15 years for Rongrong to develop a product nearly similar in quality and performance as foreign rivals but the cost is about 40 percent cheaper, Guan Ketian, chief technical engineer of the company, told Yicai Global. Prices should fall even further after the production scale is boosted, he added.

Rongrong's pilot production line can make 40 tons of the fiber a year and next year, the figure should rise to 100 tons, according to Guan. In three years, the capacity should even triple from there.

Editor: Tang Shihua, Emmi Laine