JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #37 - December 2007 - 10

COMPANIES high energy prices have increased demand for the lightweight strength of Kevlar in the aerospace, oil & gas and automotive industries.” DuPont is committed to investment in both Kevlar and Nomex® brand aramid fibres, including several recent investments in both products. In August 2006, the company announced it expected to invest more than $100 million in a three-phase capacity expansion that would raise Nomex fibre and paper capability by approximately 10%. The first phase of the Nomex expansion is scheduled to go online later this year. www2.dupont.com centre is an expansion of the company’s product development facilities. The facility will provide extensive material specification and testing services. The new applied technology centre houses extrusion and compounding equipment for new product development, injection moulding machines, with the capability to support customer trials on-site, as well as a suite of existing tooling for moulding experimental samples and test pieces. www.victrex.com Victrex opens new technology centre Victrex Plc has opened an applied technology centre at its primary production facility in Thornton Cleveleys in the UK. The new £1.5 million, 900 square metre SGL Group plans to triple its capacity SGL Group plans to triple its carbonfibre production capacity to as much as 12,000 metric tons (MT) by 2012. In addition to the announced expansion of the Inverness location (Scotland) to an annual production of approximately 4,000 MT by the end of 2008, there are also plans to expand the Evanston location (Wyoming, USA) and to establish a new carbon-fibre production site at Meitingen (Germany) with similar production capacities. The Group intends to invest a total of about €300 million in these measures over the coming five years. For the Carbon Fibres & Composites (CFC) business unit, SGL Group plans to increase sales in four business lines – Carbon Fibres, Composite Materials, Composite Components and Brake Disks – by considerably more than 15% per year. The sharp increase in sales is also expected to lead to a significant improvement in return on sales (ROS). Whilst the ROS for the previous fiscal year remained negative at -4% as a result SGL Group should increase by 40% to 50% by 2011. Over the whole period, the ROS should be at least in the range between 12% and 16%. The high level of investments in the entire valueadded chain for carbon fibre and composites results in a considerable realignment of the Meitingen site near Augsburg, which consequently gains a certain unique positioning. Bundling all of SGL Group’s global research and deve-lopment (R&D) expertise at this location, combined with the construction of the new global research and development centre is a further logical milestone. The company invests some €8 million in this project. In the medium term, the number of scientific employees will be increased from 80 at present to approximately 120. www.sglcarbon.com of development and start-up costs, a positive return is already expected in 2007. The company expects an ROS in the high single digits for 2008. An ROS exceeding 10% is expected by 2011. Against the 2006 figures, total sales for SGL Group acquires Epo SGL Group has acquired Epo GmbH, a manufacturer of carbon-fibre composites and particularly of unidirectional semi-finished carbon-fibrebased products (prepregs). With a global presence in these markets, Epo generated sales of around €20 million in 2006. The transaction is still subject to approval by the antitrust authorities. SGL Group is active along the value-added chain all the way from precursor to composites. The Group plans to increase sales of its Carbon Fibres & Composites (CFC) Business Unit by at least 15% per year until 2011. CFC’s ninemonth figures for 2007 already indicate a sales growth of 28%, up from €96.8 million during the same period of 2006, to €123.7 million. www.sglcarbon.com JEC Composites Magazine / No37 December 2007

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JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #37 - December 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #37 - December 2007