Toray increases production capacity for large tow fiber

Toray Industries has decided to increase large tow carbon fiber production capacity at their US-based subsidiary, Zoltek Companies.

With this facility expansion, they are planning to increase production capacity at Zoltek’s Hungarian facility (located in Nyergesújfalu) by 50 percent from 10,000 tons to 15,000 tons annually. The entire investment exceeds 130 million USD and production will start in early 2020.

Zoltek is currently implementing enhancements to equipment to raise the capacity of their Mexican facility from 5,000 tons per year to 10,000 tons per year. Once the current enhancements at the Hungarian facility are in place, Zoltek’s total annual production capacity will be approximately 25,000 tons.

Demand for large tow carbon fiber is rapidly expanding for industrial applications. Demand for wind energy turbine blades, the main application of Zoltek’s large tow carbon fiber, is expanding in South America as well as in Asia, particularly China and India.

Furthermore, due to the large size of the turbines, there is an expected increase in demand for large tow carbon fiber, which will likely result in further expansion. In particular, additionally, in Europe, where the use of carbon fiber for automotive structural applications is taking precedent, Zoltek has established a timely supply chain from the Hungarian facility, which is currently expanding its production capacity.

By rapidly responding to future demand increases, Toray Group, including Zoltek, aims to become the global standard for automotive structural applications. Zoltek will continue to enhance their carbon fiber production equipment at the Hungarian and Mexican facilities, and will maintain their place as the world’s number one supplier of large tow carbon fiber.