Cytec Industries said Wednesday it has selected Greenville, S.C., for its carbon fiber expansion project announced last year.
Pending final approval, construction is expected to begin in 2008 with plant start-up scheduled for early 2010. The expansion would double Cytec’s carbon fiber manufacturing capacity and provide additional capability to meet the demand for next-generation carbon fibers.
Cytec’s capital investment in the expansion, projected at approximately $150 million, is in addition to a modernization and recommissioning effort completed last year at the company’s existing carbon fiber manufacturing site in Greenville, which increased Cytec’s annual carbon fiber production capacity by 33 percent and added 60 new jobs. Cytec expects to add approximately 225 additional skilled and professional jobs when the expansion project is fully operational. Today, Cytec employs nearly 290 at its carbon fiber plants in Greenville and Rock Hill, South Carolina.
“We’re committed to meeting the increasing needs of our customers for carbon fiber-based materials,” said Cytec Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer James P. Cronin. “We expect to benefit from this strategic investment by focusing a large part of our additional carbon fiber capacity on Cytec Engineered Materials’ advanced composites product line, which is experiencing significant growth as aerospace composites use escalates.”
When the planned new facility goes online in 2010 it will manufacture high volumes of Cytec carbon fibers such as THORNEL T300, T650 and T40/800, which are used by a variety of commercial aerospace and military customers, as well as new fibers currently under development.
Carbon fibers act as a reinforcement material in advanced composites used by aerospace and high-performance manufacturers and offer advantages such as light weight, high tensile strength, durability and resistance to corrosion and high temperatures.
