Continental Structural Plastics (CSP, Auburn Hills, Michigan / USA; www.cspplastics.com) is building an approximately 18,000 m² plant for automotive parts made of sheet moulding compounds (SMC) in Seguin, Texas / USA near San Antonio. CSP, a subsidiary of carbon fibre producer Teijin (Tokyo / Japan; www.teijin.co.jp), is investing around USD 70m (almost EUR 64m) in the project that is expected to create around 200 jobs in production, engineering and administration. The company had a groundbreaking ceremony on 1 October for the manufacturing facility, which is set to be fully operational by 2021.

With more than 85,000 t of processed composites – notably SMC, GMT and prepregs – CSP is one of the largest composites converters in North America. The US-based company manufactures composite parts for the automotive, commercial vehicle and construction industries. Including the new facility, 14 of the company’s 19 plants and branches are located in North America.

Since it acquired CSP in 2016, Teijin has expanded the subsidiary’s international activities. The Japanese group took over automotive supplier Inapal Plasticos (Leça do Balio / Portugal) last summer – see Plasteurope.com of 27.08.2018. In addition, an SMC compounding line is scheduled to start operating at CSP’s plant in Pouancé / France later in 2019 – see Plasteurope.com of 03.08.2018 – and earlier this year, the Chinese joint venture CSP Victall (Tangshan) Structural Composites (Shanghai; www.csp-victall.com) announced plans to build a second production facility for class A body panels, battery cases and pickup boxes in Wujin, Jiangsu / China. The JV’s other plant is in Tangshan, Hebei / China.