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Toray Industries, Inc. has announced its decision to
expand domestic production capacity of its PAN-based carbon fiber TORAYCA.
The company plans to add two integrated production lines for carbon fiber
covering polymerization, precursor spinning, and carbonization (total
of 2,200 tons per year), and one production line for prepreg1 (5.8 million
m2 per year) at its Ehime Plant (Masaki-cho, Iyo-gun, Ehime prefecture).
Toray will spend a total of 25.0 billion yen for this
expansion and these additional production facilities are expected to start
operation from January 2007. The company chose Ehime as the site for expansion
in response to the enthusiastic request from Ehime prefecture, and providing
valuable cooperation from Ehime prefecture and Masaki-cho in the construction
of the new facilities.
The expansion in TORAYCA production capacity is to respond
to the growing demand in carbon fibers led by the composite materials
for B787, the new passenger aircraft of Boeing Co., U.S. to be entered
in service in 2008 as well as the strong growth in general industrial
use. As the sole authorized supplier of TORAYCA prepreg for B787, Toray
plans to start full-scale supply of prepreg from its U.S. production site
in 2006.
To respond to the fact that the orders for B787 aircraft
is increasing faster than expected as well as the growing production of
B777, the company decided to expand its carbon fiber and prepreg production
capacity. With this expansion, Toray aims to establish a "dual source"
supply structure built around its two production sites in Japan and the
U.S. and establish a stable supply system for Boeing as well as the Japanese
heavy industry companies that are the suppliers of main structural parts
for B787.
Along with the recovery in aircraft demand, the aeronautical
industry is experiencing a rapid "shift to composite materials" in the
development programs for new aircrafts and is facing a historic expansion
of demand for such materials. Also in the general industrial applications,
production of various large-scale applications such as pressure vessels,
blades for windmills and automobile materials using PAN-based carbon fiber
has been entering into mass production from test phases.
Moreover, demand has also been rapidly increasing in
Asia led by China for civil engineering and construction applications
and so on, leading to increasing tightness in the supply-demand balance
at present. The demand for PAN-based carbon fiber for 2004 was estimated
to be about 22,000 tons and, taking into consideration such developments
in various applications, the demand is forecast to grow at an annual rate
of more than 10% in the future and is expected to exceed 30,000 tons in
2007.
Toray has positioned the carbon fiber TORAYCA composite
material as the core product of its advanced materials and is promoting
a strategic expansion of this business. The move announced this time is
the third expansion in production facilities following similar expansions
in France and the U.S and the group's production capacity for carbon fiber
will increase to 13,100 tons per year 2 and for prepreg production will
expand to 22.2 million m2 per year3 by 2007.
As the leading manufacturer of carbon fiber in the world,
Toray will continue to strengthen its global supply system with the existing
three bases in Japan, the U.S. and Europe. Toray intends to expand its
global share to carbon fiber to about 40% 4 and sales in excess of 110
billion yen by 2010 in its TORAYCA advanced composite materials business
by utilizing its strength of overall technical development prowess cutting
across carbon fibers, intermediate materials and composite materials and
also by enhancing its vertical integration business model.
Source: Toray Industries,
Inc.
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