Toray Industries, Inc. of Japan has officially released the 2023-2025 mid-term management plan project AP.G2025. During the 2025 mid-term management plan, the company will continue to expand its investment in the carbon fiber composite material business segment and increase the expected revenue of this segment. It will also promptly capture the growing aviation market and increase the application of urban air traffic. Toray predicts that the global demand for carbon fiber will be 12.83 million tons in 2025, and the global demand for carbon fiber will reach 203,700 tons by 2025. Based on the above market judgment, the company has formulated an expansion plan. By mid-2025, the company will increase at least 750 tons/year of small-tow carbon fiber, including 6,500 tons/year of high-strength carbon fiber for pressure vessels and 1,000 tons/year of high-modulus carbon fiber for uranium centrifuges in the nuclear energy field; and Zoltek's new 2,500 tons/year production capacity in Mexico will also be started in due course.
On July 13, 2023, Toray announced plans to increase the production capacity of small-tow (conventional tow, carbon fiber) at two carbon fiber plants in the United States and South Korea. The investment will increase Toray Group's annual production capacity of small-tow carbon fiber by more than 20% and is expected to reach 135,000 tons by 2025. On October 3, 2023, Toray announced that it would expand the production capacity of medium/high modulus (small-tow! carbon fiber) of its French subsidiary Toray Carbon Europe. Through this expansion, Toray Europe's annual production capacity at its Abid0s plant in southwestern France will be increased from 500 tons to 60 tons per year, and the new capacity is expected to be put into production in 2025 (read the original text). As early as November 30, 2023, Toray Carbon Europe (Taraycabon Hbers Europe (Toray CFE) announced its decision to invest approximately 100 million euros to build a new production line at its plant in southwestern France with a capacity of 1,000 tons, mainly including medium modulus/high modulus grade carbon fiber. Construction work is scheduled to start in the second half of 2023 and production is expected to start at the end of 2025. The two plants are Toray Composites America's Spartanburg plant in South Carolina, USA, and Toray Advanced Materials Korea's Gumi plant in Gyeongsengbukdo, South Korea.
