Lightweight Material
South Korean industrial material manufacturers and chemical companies are focusing on lightweight automotive materials.
For example, LG Hausys acquired six new patents between last year and the first quarter of this year with regard to automotive materials and components, five out of the six relating to lightweight materials for use in automobiles. In addition, it has worked on 12 lightweight components and vehicle weight reduction techniques, including continuous fiber thermoplastic-based bumper back beam insert molding, and some of them are already commercially available.
In the meantime, Hanwha Advanced Materials is planning to increase the number of its manufacturing facilities abroad from eight to at least 10 by 2020. The company recently took over Azdel and Heycoustics, which are American and German auto parts manufacturers, respectively. It set up a local subsidiary in Monterrey, Mexico in February last year, too. At present, Hanwha Advanced Materials is estimated to have a share of approximately 70% in the global glass mat reinforced thermoplastics (GMT) market.
Hyosung launched full-scale marketing activities this year for its carbon fiber- and polyketone-based products. The company developed new carbon fiber and polyketone materials in 2011 and 2013, respectively.
KOLON established KOLON BASF innoPOM with BASF in April and is currently building a polyoxymethylene (POM) production plant. Toray Advanced Materials built a polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) production factory in the Saemangeum Industrial Complex in the North Jeolla Province at an investment of 300 billion won, which was put into operation this year.