Toray carbon fiber – Toray to boost carbon fiber capacity 20% - Arhive

TOKYO — Toray Industries aims to increase its global carbon fiber production capacity about 20% by 2018, focusing on a low-price version used in wind turbines and other applications.Toray carbon fiber 

The Tokyo-based company may spend over 10 billion yen ($99.5 million) to triple the capacity at a Mexican plant making the low-end fiber, which also can be used for autoparts. The decision will be finalized as early as this year.Toray carbon fiber 

The company previously specialized in high-end carbon fiber for uses such as aircraft, but is now going on the offensive in the low-end version amid growing demand and broadening applications.

Toray Industries looks to expand carbon fiber capacity by 20%.

Toray targets overall carbon fiber capacity of 52,000 tons annually, which would raise the company’s leading global market share from around 43% to nearly 50%.Toray carbon fiber 

The Mexican plant in the west-central state of Jalisco has been running at full capacity thanks to brisk demand. Toray carbon fiber 

Toray entered the low-price carbon fiber market via its 2014 acquisition of an American business, Zoltek Companies. Toray carbon fiber 

Such carbon fiber is more uneven in appearance and quality than its high-value counterpart, but it still offers 10 times the strength of iron at one-quarter of the weight. Toray is devising processing methods to fully enter the market for automotive products.

For high-end carbon fiber, Toray has secured a long-term contract topping 1 trillion yen to supply aircraft builder Boeing and is close to a long-term deal with American spacecraft company SpaceX. Toray plans to boost capacity for U.S. facilities as well.

Toray positions the high-value carbon fiber as an engine for mid- to long-term growth, with the low-price variety serving as a source of steady earnings.Toray carbon fiber 

(Nikkei)