Low Carbon Policy
The engineering plastic market is achieving economy of scale, mainly in the car materials market, by taking the place of iron and benefiting from the low carbon policy and the trend of vehicle weight reductions.
According to industry sources, Toray, which is leading the global engineering plastic market, is going to expand its carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) production and post-processing facilities from the second half of this year to 2016 to better meet the fast-increasing market demand. The carbon fiber market leader took over Dome Carbon Magic, a composite material developer, in April last year and Zoltek, the third-largest carbon fiber company in the world, in September at a cost of 700 billion won (US$683.9 million). Toray raised its carbon fiber market share to over 30 percent through this process, and is now building a polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) production plant in the Saemangeum Industrial Complex in North Jeolla Province via Toray Advanced Materials Korea. A total of 300 billion won (US$293.1 million) is being invested in the factory, which is scheduled to manufacture 8,600 tons of PPS resin and 3,300 tons of PPS compound a year.
This is to satisfy skyrocketing demand from global automakers. The carbon fiber market, in fact, is still in its early stage, with the market size having reached 50,000 tons and US$2 billion last year. However, the annual growth rate is 11 percent, and can be further boosted as global chemical companies expand their facilities and automakers resort to carbon fiber to reduce the weights of their vehicles in the face of fuel economy regulations.
Korean companies are jumping in the engineering plastic market one after another, too. For example, Hyosung unveiled the carbon fiber brand of Tansome and started the commercial production last year. It is going to boost the annual production capacity from 2,000 tons to 17,000 tons by 2020 with an investment of 1.2 trillion won (US$1.1 billion). The Tansome has recently been used in Hyundai Motor’s concept car Intrado. In addition, Hyosung developed polyketone on its own for the first time in the world and began the commercial-scale production of the high molecular engineering plastic.
SK Chemical is working on a PPS manufacturing plant with Teijin Chemical, a Japanese chemical firm, in Ulsan. It also produces prepreg using the carbon fiber materials supplied from Mitsubishi Rayon. GS Caltex, in the meantime, unveils its prototype products next year which are produced from petroleum by-products.