Teijin announced that it has agreed to acquire Inapal Plasticos ("Inapal"), an automotive composites supplier based in Portugal. To this end, Teijin Holdings, a holding company of Teijin Group in the Netherlands, will acquire shares in Inapal. Following the successful completion of customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, the acquisition was completed in early August 2018.
Inapal, headquartered in Leca do Balio, Porto, Portugal, is a tier one supplier of composite parts for the automotive and heavy truck industries. The company is able to use a variety of materials and processes such as sheet molding (SMC), carbon fiber SMC, prepreg molding (PCM), direct long fiber thermoplastic (D-LFT), and glass fiber felt thermoplastic (GMT ) Production of body panels, structural parts and underbody parts for Class A surfaces. The company has two production plants in Portugal serving European OEM customers, including Jaguar, Land Rover, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Bentley.
Inapal Plasticos, headquartered in Leca do Balio, Porto, Portugal, is a tier one supplier of composite parts for the automotive and heavy truck industries
In addition to its automotive and heavy truck business, Inapal also supplies parts for the heating and cooling industry, as well as passenger seats for the passenger car and railway industries. In 2017, the company's sales were 31.9 million euros. "We are using our lightweight, high-strength, high-performance materials and integrated composite technology as one of the cores of our transformation strategy to realize our medium-term management plan." Teijin Limited President and CEO Jun Suzuki said, The acquisition of structural plastics has opened a new window for us to position ourselves as a first-class supplier of high-performance composite materials for the global automotive market. In July, we announced our commitment to JH Ziegler GmbH, Germany's leading supplier of automotive interior materials ("Ziegler" for short) has also opened a new window for us. Now the acquisition of Inapal has enabled us to fulfill our commitment to our stakeholders to promote our technology globally, including in Europe. We will use the capabilities of Continental Structural Plastics, Ziegler, and Inapal to seek synergies to maintain continuous growth as a supplier of multiple material components. This will also allow us to demonstrate our future as a company that provides new value Commitments made by society. "
"The addition of Inapal has also positioned Continental Structural Plastics as a global leader in lightweight composite materials." Continental Structural Plastics CEO Steve Rooney added, "With this, we can really say that we are providing lightweight for the automotive industry. One of the world's largest suppliers of composite parts. Our strategic positioning is to meet customer needs, and we are ready to meet the rapid changes in the industry today. "
Teijin expects to have sales of about 1.7 billion euros in its automotive composites business by 2030. The company is currently capable of serving customers in most parts of the world, including North America, Europe and Asia, and has established business relationships with major automotive OEMs worldwide.
Teijin will continue to strengthen Inapal's operational capabilities, develop expansion opportunities, invest in growth markets and create value for all stakeholders, including employees, customers and partners.
Following the acquisition of Continental Structural Plastics in 2017, Teijin has been committed to improving its automotive business capabilities globally. New technologies it has developed include: Sereebo, the world's first mass production technology for carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastics (CFRTP); In Europe, Teijin Carbon Europe GmbH, the group's core carbon fiber business, developed the TENAX Part via Preform ("PvP") technology. As a material processing technology, PvP enables efficient production of thermoset carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP). PvP is recognized as a first-class technology by European OEMs and has been put into the production of structural applications for current automotive platforms. In Pouancé, Maine-et-Loire, France, Continental Structural Plastics' European plant recently announced that it will install an SMC production line to make the company's patented and award-winning composite technology available to European customers.