As European initiatives to accelerate the adoption of carbon fibre composites in new areas such as mass market vehicles continue, Japan’s Toray Industries has purchased Arkema’s 30% shares in Soficar.
Soficar currently has annual carbon fibre production capacity of 5,200 tons and will be renamed Toray Carbon Fibers Europe.
It was established in 1982 as a joint venture with Elf Aquitaine and Toray increased its stake to 70% in 1988
Toray now plans to further accelerate its move to establish the integrated value chain of carbon fiber Torayca and expand the business through installing new production lines of raw material fibre (precursor) and prepreg for aircraft application in the future, as well as further expansion of carbonization capacity at new CFE.
Global demand for polyacrylonitrile(PAN)-based carbon fibre in 2011 is estimated to be almost 40,000 tons and to continue growing significantly at an annual rate exceeding 15%.
Toray is accelerating application developments in the fields of aerospace, sporting goods and general industrial and its production network to be based on its current three sites in Japan, France and the USA, and also in South Korea from 2013.