Japanese companies increase carbon fiber market development efforts

Due to the long-term existence of factors such as the strong Japanese Yen and the high domestic tax rate of Japanese corporations, Japanese companies have been facing increasingly fierce competition from companies in South Korea and other countries in the new material industry that has been leading. In order to retain their advantages and expand profits, famous chemical fiber companies such as Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Co., Ltd. and Toray Co., Ltd. have stepped up efforts to open up new markets in this area.

The non-deformable carbon fiber produced by Mitsubishi Chemical's Mitsubishi Plastics Corporation is mainly used in industrial machinery manufacturing and other areas, accounting for 80% of the world market share; light carbon fiber manufactured by Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd. is used for the long handle of aircraft and golf clubs. The two companies have decided to carry out technical cooperation and strive to develop a new material that is not easy to bend in 2 to 3 years for wind turbine blades. Mitsubishi Plastics plans to spend 5 billion yen, and by 2015 it will increase the annual production capacity of Japan's factory from the current 1,000 tons to 1,500 tons.

Water treatment membranes are an important part of seawater desalination equipment. Toray and Nitto Denko have occupied the top two positions in the world for a long time. Toray consider expanding the use of this product to sewage purification and decontamination of radioactive materials. Experiments show that after treatment with water treatment membranes, the concentration of radioactive material can be reduced to 1/300 to 1/500. Nitto Denko, in cooperation with the Norwegian power giant, used related technologies to participate in the new energy market.