Toray Industries, Inc. (headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President: Akihiro Nikkaku; hereinafter referred to as “Toray”) announced today that it agreed to purchase in April 2013 the entire stake in DOME CARBON MAGIC LTD. (headquarters: Maibara-shi, Shiga Prefecture; President: Akiyoshi Oku; hereinafter referred to as “DCM”) from DOME Group, a racing car designer and manufacturer highly acclaimed by the automobile industry, and make it a wholly owned subsidiary in order to expand its carbon fiber composite materials business in the automobile and other applications. Toray plans to rename the company Toray Carbon Magic Co., Ltd. At the same time, the company will also acquire a 75% stake in Dome Composites (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Cholburi Province, Thailand; Managing Director: Satoshi Yatani; hereinafter referred to as “DCT”), and make it a subsidiary, which Toray plans to rename as Carbon Magic (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
DCM was established in 1995 as a manufacturing company of DOME CO., LTD. (headquarters: Maibara-shi, Shiga Prefecture; President: Hiroshi Fushida) to produce carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) parts for racing cars. DCM’s expertise in design engineering, prototype proposal and high precision technology, acquired through its experience in design and manufacturing of racing car parts, is highly respected in the market. The company has been producing a number of CFRP parts in a wide range of fields not limited to automobile applications.
Thai production base DCT was established in 2005 as a joint venture with Saha Group, a major local consumer goods conglomerate, for mass production of CFRP parts. Since then, DCT has been mass-producing high-quality products at competitive prices using autoclave technology and steadily expanding its business.
Toray is currently developing products as well as design and manufacturing technology of carbon fiber composite materials primarily at Advanced Composite Center and Automotive Center, which are the core facilities of Automotive & Aircraft Center (A&A Center), a comprehensive technology development base for automotive and aircraft fields located in Nagoya Plant. In Europe, the company in 2008 took a stake in ACE Advanced Composite Engineering GmbH (location: Immenstaad, Germany; abbr. ACE), which develops and manufactures CFRP parts based on resin transfer molding (RTM) technology, while establishing in 2011 Euro Advanced Carbon Fiber Composites GmbH (location: Esslingen, Germany; abbr. EACC) in a joint venture with Daimler AG for manufacturing and distributing CFRP parts in a bid to strengthen and enhance the supply chain of carbon fiber composite materials for automobile applications. The acquisition of DCM dramatically enhances Toray’s CFRP parts design technology prowess and the synergy effects with its existing various CFRP forming technologies would strengthen the Toray Group’s ability to rapidly respond to customer demands. Moreover, by securing a manufacturing foothold for carbon fiber composite materials for the first time in Thailand, which is the center of ASEAN auto industry and a nation whose government is planning to attract aircraft-related industries, Toray will not only have a competitive global supply chain to offer to its customers but also take on the economic growth of the region.
The Toray Group will continue to expand and enhance the vertical integration business model on a global scale with the aim of offering solutions to its customers and further expanding its carbon fiber and advanced composites business.
