CDMOs’ new capacity skews stainless by liters, but single-use leads by system count

In 2026, CDMO capacity headlines often focus on large stainless-steel builds. But the picture is more mixed. According to Contract Pharma, most new CDMO capacity by volume is large-scale stainless steel, while single-use leads by number of systems.

In a September 15 report from Contract Pharma, contributing writer Dan Stanton cited BioProcess Technology Group’s bioTRAK database (a BDO USA division) to quantify what’s actually coming online. Dawn Ecker, managing director of bioTRAK Database Services, put installed global bioreactor capacity at about 8.6 million liters, with roughly 35% operated by CDMOs. By 2030, she said total capacity is expected to reach 10.6 million liters, with around 915,000 liters of that new capacity installed by CDMOs.

Stainless still adds the liters, single-use adds the lines

Contract Pharma reported that large-scale stainless steel is expected to account for 71% of new CDMO capacity by volume, and that only a small number of companies are putting in that kind of stainless capacity. By system count, however, single-use ranks first, representing 61% of the about 120 bioreactors CDMOs are projected to install, based on bioTRAK figures shared with Contract Pharma.

That combination helps explain why capacity signals can point in two directions at once. Big stainless campuses drive most of the added liters. But, according to Contract Pharma, single-use accounts for most of the systems CDMOs are projected to install.

North Carolina’s stainless cluster highlights non-equipment constraints

Contract Pharma anchored the debate in a comment made in June at Sartorius’ Process Intensification Forum in Hyderabad, India. Miriam Monge, Sartorius’ head of Customer and Industry Advocacy, questioned the scale of industry spend on large stainless capacity and pointed to the concentration of builds in North Carolina.

Miriam Monge pointed to North Carolina, where Fujifilm Biotechnologies has opened phase one of a $3.2 billion facility in Holly Springs featuring eight 20,000-liter bioreactors, and where Amgen and Genentech have pledged an additional $1 billion and $2 billion, respectively, in nearby projects. According to Contract Pharma, Monge asked delegates if demand could ever absorb capacity at that scale and whether the area’s power grid and water system could support several plants of that size concentrated in one region.

Single-use growth is tied to smaller-volume demand and outsourced programs

“Demand fragmenting is present in the CDMO data,” Ecker said.

Where the economics still draw a line, and where they no longer do

Utilization discipline is still the guardrail on expansion

The other stabilizing point in the Contract Pharma reporting is that big stainless announcements don’t necessarily imply speculative overbuild. Ecker declined to provide site-level utilization figures, but she told Contract Pharma that the market is “mostly full” and that CDMOs do not announce capacity they cannot fill because utilization drives revenue. In her experience, she said, expansion discussions typically begin once a site has been booked above 80% for several years.

Contract Pharma reported that single-use systems are expected to represent 61% of the approximately 120 bioreactors CDMOs are projected to install, while large-scale stainless steel is projected to comprise 71% of new CDMO capacity by volume.

What to watch through 2030: system counts, not liters