Toray Industries Inc. of Japan announced that it will build a new lithium-ion battery separator (BSF) plant in Nyergesújfalu, northern Hungary. The new plant will be located near Toray Industries Hungary (THU), which was established in April 2018. It is expected that the new plant will officially start operations by July 2021, and it is expected that the overall capacity of the company's BSF will be increased by 20%.
To date, the Toray Group has produced BSF in the Nasu and Japan factories, of which Toray Battery Separator Korea Co., Ltd. (TBSK) is engaged in the development, production and sales of BSF, and Toray BSF Coating Korea Co., Ltd. Responsible for the coating process. In 2017, Toray announced investment in the expansion of its Japanese and Korean plants to increase production capacity. Since fiscal year 2018, Toray has also started a new production line.
Considering that consumer applications such as mobile electronic equipment and energy storage systems will grow steadily, and electric vehicles (EV) are becoming more and more popular, the demand for BSF in the global automotive and other fields is expected to grow rapidly. Especially in Europe, European environmental awareness is increasing day by day, environmentally friendly electric vehicles are expected to spread rapidly, and battery manufacturers are also actively entering the European market, so the demand for BSF in Europe is also expected to grow rapidly.
Toray has always adopted the basic strategic thinking of "local production, local consumption" in the development of overseas business. By locating production facilities closer to customers, Toray is able to meet growing demand and contribute to local and community economic development.
At present, in terms of the diaphragm business, Toray is implementing a medium-term management plan, Project AP-G 2019. One of the basic goals of the plan is "to increase the use of global bases to expand business by adding high-value-added products in areas where business is growing. "In this business, expanding BSF business is Toray's top priority.