Due to the high demand for carbon fiber in automotive production, BMW has announced plans to expand their carbon fiber factory in Moses Lake, Washington.
The plant, which is jointly-operated with SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers, will receive an investment of $200 million, in addition to the invested $100 million that was announced in February. The expansion, scheduled to be completed by early 2015, will make the plant in Moses Lake the world’s largest carbon fiber plant.
At present, the Moses Lake plant operates two production lines with an annual output of 3,000 tons of carbon fiber. Already this summer, SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers will commission a third and fourth production line, which are currently being built, thus doubling the plant’s capacity to 6,000 tons per year. The latest groundbreaking ceremony for a fifth and sixth production line has been the first step toward tripling capacities to 9,000 tons annually in the medium term.
Dr. Klaus Draeger, BMW's Board Member for Purchasing and Supplier Network, said: "CFRP is a key material for the automotive industry of the 21st century. In our endeavor to identify increasingly lightweight materials in order to reduce a vehicle’s weight and thus its fuel consumption and carbon emissions, this material plays a crucial role. As part of an intelligent mix of materials, we will apply carbon also beyond our BMW i and BMW M models in the future."
