JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #72 - April/May 2012 - 4

point of view: expansion

Toray believes in Europe
On 25 January 2012, carbon fibre company SOficAr (for SOciété des fibres de cArbone) officially became Toray carbon fibers Europe after the Japanese group Toray acquired 100% of SOficAr’s share capital. Mr Bernard Martin, SOficAr’s executive general manager for the last six months, was appointed cEO of the new entity. Here, we take time with him to review the many projects he will be putting into effect.

interview
Bernard Martin, Chairman of the Board and CEO Toray Carbon Fibers Europe, France

JEC Composites Magazine: With the creation of Toray CFE, Toray will enjoy a new boom in Europe, particularly in France. What are your medium-term objectives and industrial investments for this new entity?

About Toray Group
On 10 January 2012, Toray Industries, Inc. announced the purchase of the remaining shares in Société des Fibres de Carbone S.A. (SOFICAr), its French subsidiary engaged in manufacturing and sales of carbon fibres, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. Until then, Toray held a 70% stake and

its French business partner Arkema, a 30% stake. Toray also renamed SOFICAr, calling it Toray Carbon Fibers Europe S.A. (CFE) to show the Toray Group’s strong commitment to European customers and end-users. CFE has a capital of 44,800,000 euros. SOFICAr was established in 1982 as a joint venture with Elf Aquitaine (investment ratio: 35% by Toray

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Bernard Martin: The new entity that takes over for SOFICAR is called Toray Carbon Fibers Europe. It was given that name after the Toray Group – which had previously held 70% of the company shares – bought out the remaining shares for a 100% stake at the end of last year. Our investment projects derive from our strategy, which is to create a fully integrated supply

chain in the composite market, mainly for aerospace. The first step will be to create a manufacturing unit for the carbon fibre precursor PAN (polyacrylonitrile) at the Lacq site. We chose the Lacq site for several reasons: 1) the site is very close to our Abidos site, and PAN is the raw material for the carbon fibre we produce there; 2) this type of site requires a specific Seveso II level safety environment, and it happens that the Lacq platform is classified Seveso II. (Editor’s note: The European Seveso II Directive concerns risk and major accident management. Operators are required to define an accident prevention policy and implement a safety management system in line with the type of risk,

Toray is and intends to remain the world’s leading carbon fibre producer.”

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i.e. the plausible accident scenarios, for their facilities.) The unit will be dedicated to PAN production, for a capacity of 12,000 metric tons per year. The Toray Group’s latest polyacrylonitrile manufacturing technology will be used, making France the location with the state-of-the-art technology. The Group has two PAN manufacturing technologies, and our production lines and product ranges require both; the new site with the second technology will serve as our major source of supply, although we will maintain supplies of the first type of technology. To ensure the availability of all products needed at the Abidos site, it is always possible that in future, the first type of technology could

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #72 - April/May 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #72 - April/May 2012