SGL & BMW: New carbon fiber plant for U.S.

SGL Group SE (Wiesbaden, Germany; www.sglcarbon.com) and BMW Group (Munich, Germany; www.bmwgroup.com) jointly announced today at an event in Seattle that their joint venture, SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers LLC, will build a state-of-the-art carbon fiber manufacturing plant in Moses Lake, Wash. During the initial phase, $100 million will be invested and 80 local jobs will be created. The new facility is an important element of both companies strategy to commercialize viable manufacturing of ultra-light-weight, carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) for use in future vehicle concepts. The fibers manufactured at Moses Lake will be used exclusively for BMW Group’s upcoming Megacity Vehicle. In February of this year, BMW Group announced that this new vehicle for urban mobility, set to be launched before 2015 under a BMW sub-brand, will be assembled in Leipzig, Germany. Now, a key piece of the Megacity Vehicle has a base in the U.S. In line with BMW and SGL’s leading roles in sustainable business operations, the decision to build the carbon fiber plant in Moses Lake was based primarily on the availability of renewable clean hydropower and competitive energy costs in the state of Washington. Favorable infrastructure conditions,…