Teijin establishes new JV to accelerate its automotive rubber development
Teijin Limited and Teijin Frontier Co. Ltd, the Teijin Group's fiber product converting company, announced that they will establish a Joint Venture (JV), the Teijin FRA Tire Cord (Thailand) Co. Ltd. in partnership with Ayaha Corporation, a Japanese company specializing in tire cord production.
The Japanese group also announced that it will expand the production capacity for automotive hose cord at a separate subsidiary, Teijin Cord (Thailand) Co. Ltd.
The Teijin Group will develop midstream business by accelerating sales to Asia's expanding automotive industry, aiming to strengthen its local supply of automotive rubber materials, such as tire cord and hose cord, to customers in China and the ASEAN region.
The new joint venture will be established on the premises of Teijin (Thailand) Limited located in Bang Pa-in Industrial Estate, Ayutthaya, in June. It will begin operating with a 16,000-ton annual capacity from October 2015.
The company will start with capital of US$11.7 million, which will be shared in the ratio of Teijin-10%, Teijin Frontier-56.66% and Ayaha-33.34%.
The new tire cord plant will be equipped with twisting, weaving and adhesion facilities, producing highly processed rayon, aramid and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) tire cords for high performance tires. It will also produce polyester and nylon tire cords for general tires.
Teijin Cord (Thailand) Co. Ltd. will also expand its automotive hose cord business as of April 2015. The company will increase its adhesion facility's annual capacity by 70% at a cost of US$900,000. Teijin Cord (Thailand) is located in the Rojana Industrial Park of Ayutthaya.
