Japanese fibre producer Teijin (Tokyo; www.teijin.com) is boosting its automotive composites business with the establishment of a new technical base in Wuppertal / Germany in February 2020. The “Teijin Automotive Center Europe” (TACE) is expected to speed up concept, design, prototyping and the evaluation of technological proposals that are developed by each of the group’s European bases.

Later, TACE will develop marketing and research functions to explore opportunities for new technologies as well as mergers and acquisitions. The aim is to accelerate joint development with European car manufacturers and respond to demands for greater design freedom, productivity and cost efficiency as well as weight reduction and strength.

At the same time, Teijin said it will pursue opportunities to establish bases for automotive composite technical functions in the US and China to satisfy demand and steadily strengthen its position in these markets. As a result of its initiatives, the Japanese group is targeting sales from its automotive composite business of around EUR 1.7 bn by 2030.

Teijin has made several moves in the automotive composite sector in recent years. It acquired Continental Structural Plastics (CSP, Auburn Hills, Michigan / USA; www.cspplastics.com) in 2017 to become a tier 1 supplier focused on multimaterial automotive composites. CSP will open a new sheet moulding compound plant in Pouance / France – see Plasteurope.com of 03.08.2018. In addition, Teijin took over leading automotive composite suppliers Inapal Plasticos (Leca do Balio / Portugal) – see Plasteurope.com of 27.08.2018 – and Benet Automotive (Mlada Boleslav / Czech Republic).

Car manufacturers are rapidly transforming their business models to produce more lightweight and multi-functional next-generation vehicles as the industry shifts towards connected, autonomous, shared and electric (CASE) vehicles. Teijin said its plans aim to satisfy carmakers’ demands in the forthcoming CASE era.