Toray Industries has announced that it had reached a basic agreement with Saati S.p.A to acquire its European carbon fibre fabric and prepreg business.
Toray will take over the assets of Saati’s plant located in Legnano, Milan in January 2015, when it will then start operations as Composite Materials (Italy) S.r.l., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toray, while Saati’s American composite business will still belong to the Saati Group.
In Europe, Toray currently is engaged in carbon fibre business starting from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor at its French subsidiary, Toray Carbon Fibers Europe S.A. (CFE), and CFRP parts business that uses carbon fibre fabric at its German subsidiaries of Euro Advanced Carbon Fibre Composites GmbH and ACE Advanced Composite Engineering GmbH (ACE). Through this planned acquisition of intermediate material business base, Toray establishes its own integrated supply chain, and would further strengthen the structure of Toray Group’s carbon fibre composite materials business in Europe.
Saati’s carbon fiber fabric and prepreg business has been expanding rapidly in recent years as a customer of Toray Group’s carbon fibre-related companies, especially of CFE, under the strong cooperation between the two companies. In particular, in the premium automobile field, it has been highly acclaimed by the market for its quick response to customer requirements, despite being a late entrant into the market. Going forward, Toray Group will transfer its technology to CIT while aiming to expand the business beyond Europe.