Toray to Boost Capacity of Carbon Fiber Production by Total of 4,000 tons in Japan, U.S. and France To build a new prepreg plant in Ishikawa prefecture in Japan |
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Toray Industries, Inc. (headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; president: Sadayuki Sakakibara) today announced that the company made a decision to expand production capacity of its PAN-based carbon fiber TORAYCA composite material simultaneously at its three manufacturing bases in Japan, the U.S. and France. The move is aimed at responding to the full-scale expansion in demand for PAN-based carbon fibers for uses including aircraft application. The company plans to spend 55.0 billion yen in total to build additional facilities at all the manufacturing bases of the group through the beginning of 2009. In Japan, it plans to build a second prepreg (carbon fiber sheets impregnated with epoxy resin) manufacturing facility at its Ishikawa Plant (Nomi-shi, Ishikawa prefecture), in addition to its Ehime Plant (Masaki-cho, Ehime prefecture). Since 2004, Toray has been carrying out focused capital investment on carbon fiber products. It is already committed to boosting capacity to 13,900 tons a year by August 2007, compared with 7,300 tons at the end of 2003. With the investment announced this time, the group’s production capacity for carbon fibers will increase by 4,000 tons to 17,900 tons a year and that for prepreg by 11.6 million m2 to 33.8 million m2 a year. Accumulated investments since 2004 reach 110 billion yen. Under the capacity increase plan this time, Toray will newly build a large-scale production line with production capacity of 1,800 tons a year at each of its U.S. subsidiary Toray Carbon Fibers America, Inc. (CFA; Decatur, Alabama, the U.S.) and French subsidiary Société des Fibres de Carbone S.A. (SOFICAR; Abidos, France) and a new high-performance carbon fiber production line with capacity of 400 tons will be built at the Ehime Plant in Japan. Toray will also build a precursor production line at CFA along with this increase in carbon fiber production capacity. With respect to prepreg, the company will add a production line with annual capacity of 5.8 million m2 at its U.S. subsidiary Toray Composites America, Inc. (TCA; Tacoma, Washington, the U.S.) and newly build a line with similar capacity at its Ishikawa Plant in Japan. |
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| (Figures and dates in bold respectively show the production capacities after the implementation of the latest capacity increase and the timing of start of the operation of the new lines.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
These additional investments will enable Toray to enhance its supply structure for the materials for B787, a new passenger aircraft which Boeing Co. of the U.S. aims to introduce in 2008, and strengthen its high value-added products business while ensuring a stable supply structure to respond to the rise of new demand in sports and general industrial applications and the tight supply and demand balance. With these expansions, Toray aims to optimize its TORAYCA global operations based on the three international bases of Japan, the U.S. and France by enhancing the production structure for materials ranging from precursor to prepreg. Currently, the worldwide demand for PAN-based carbon fibers is estimated at about 27,000 tons (2006) and the demand is expected to continue expanding at an annual rate of 15% in the future. In addition to the impact of the full-scale expansion in demand for aircraft application centered on B787, the global demand is expected to reach 45,500 tons in 2010 on increase in demand for alternative energy-related applications including CNG tanks and the material’s full-scale penetration into the automobile filed in the future. Toray, while aiming to make a great leap to a highly profitable company under its medium-term business objective “Project Innovation TORAY 2010 (IT-2010),” is making proactive investments to increase production of carbon fiber composite materials, which are one of its Strategically Expanding Business. Besides expanding the group production capacity of carbon fibers to 24,000 tons a year by 2010, the company will promote and strengthen the deployment of a vertically integrated business structure covering carbon materials, intermediate base materials and composites. Given the superiority in technology and product quality of TORAYCA, which is the de facto standard of the industry, Toray, as the world’s No.1 carbon fiber composite materials manufacturer, will strive to expand the business to achieve the goals of 40% global market share in terms of sales in 2010 (34% in 2006) and 160 billion yen in consolidated sales. <Profiles of plants and subsidiaries> Ehime Plant Established: April 1938 Address: 1515 Tsutsui, Masaki-cho Iyogun, Ehime, Japan Products: polyester staple fibers, acrylic staple fibers, PPS fibers, PBT fibers, LCP fibers, PAN-based carbon fibers and prepreg, composites, reverse osmosis membrane elements, veterinary interferon Ishikawa Plant Established: June 1975 Address: Ri-1, Kitaichi-machi, Nomi-shi, Ishikawa Products: nylon filaments, polyester filaments Toray Carbon Fibers America, Inc. (CFA) Established: May 1997 Address: Decatur, Alabama, the U.S. Capitalization: $115 million (100% held by Toray Industries, Inc.) Business: manufacturing and sales of PAN-based carbon fibers Toray Composites (America), Inc. (TCA) Established: May 1992 Address: Tacoma, Washington, the U.S. Capitalization: $44 million (100% held by Toray Industries, Inc.) Business: manufacturing and sales of PAN-based carbon fiber prepreg Société des Fibres de Carbone S.A. (SOFICAR) Established: December 1982 Address: Abidos, Pyrenees, France Capitalization: 34.8 million euros (Toray Industries, Inc. 70%; ARKEMA 30%) Business: manufacturing and sales of PAN-based carbon fibers |
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