Teijin is to establish Teijin Automotive Centre Europe (TACE) in Wuppertal, Germany, next month as a new base for technical functions within the companys automotive composite business.
The company will handle concept, designing, prototyping, evaluations, marketing and technical research for next-generation automotive components.
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TACE will enable Teijin to strengthen and advance its solution capabilities by establishing a platform for collaboration within the Teijin Group’s European automotive composite bases. It is expected to speed up concept, designing, prototyping and the evaluation of technological proposals developed by each base.
Later, TACE will develop marketing and research functions to explore opportunities for new technologies and M&A, aiming to accelerate joint development with European automakers and respond to demands for greater design freedom, productivity and cost efficiency as well as weight reduction and strength.
At the same time, the company will pursue opportunities to establish bases for automotive composite technical functions in the US and China.
Teijin is targeting automotive composite business sales of around EUR1.7bn (US$2bn) by 2030.
Teijin acquired Continental Structural Plastics (CSP) in 2017 to become a Tier 1 supplier focused on multi-material automotive composite.
In Europe, CSP’s French operation will open a new sheet moulding compound plant and Teijin has acquired automotive-composite suppliers Inapal Plásticos of Portugal and Benet Automotive of Czech Republic.
