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The Mitsubishi Rayon Group is a leading manufacturer of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) carbon fibers, which encompasses the production of AN monomer, carbon fibers, prepreg and finished products such as golf shafts through an integrated production system.
The carbon fiber market has been growing in the industrial application areas as well as the space and aviation application areas. This growth has resulted in a steady increase in demand, and the market is now expected to expand to top 30,000 tons by 2009. With expanded applications for pressure vessels and wind power generation likely very soon, given the emergence of a new automobile-related market, a carbon fiber manufacturer faces need to establish production systems to ensure stable supply in the future.
For this reason, the Mitsubishi Rayon Group has decided to operate new carbonization line with production capacity of 2,200 tons per year at the Toyohashi Plant in the second quarter of 2007. This initiative is the realization of our target plan to increase the production capacity of carbon fibers in Japan through 2007 to 2008, which was set up in the Medium-Term Management Plan announced in April 2005.
As a result of the enhancement, the production capacity of carbon fibers at the Toyohashi Plant will increase to 5,400 tons per year from the current 3,200 tons per year. Moreover, it is expected that work to boost the production capacity at Grafil Inc. in the United States will be completed by the end of 2005, while outsourcing of production to SGL Carbon Group will start in the second quarter of 2006 as planned. As a result of these initiatives, the production capacity of the Mitsubishi Rayon Group overall will expand to 7,900 to 8,150 tons per year.
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