Japan's Toray Industries Inc said yesterday it aimed to become the world's first firm to mass produce car parts made of carbon fiber, which can make vehicles stronger, lighter and more fuel efficient.
Toray said it would invest ¥20 billion (US$170 million) to set up a research and production center in Nagoya by 2010.
"We will accelerate development of carbon fiber components for automobiles as well as for aircraft," spokesman Ichiro Maeda said. "We hope the parts will be widely adopted in mid-class automobiles."
Toray controls more than one-third of the world's market for carbon fiber, which is better known for its use in advanced vehicles like Formula One cars.
The material's high cost has so far limited its use in mass produced automobiles, but Toray hopes demand will grow as production costs decline given carbon fiber's superior strength and lighter weight compared with steel.
Toray already has a lucrative deal to supply carbon fibers to Boeing for its next-generation 787 Dreamliner jet. It aims to more than double its sales to the automobile industry to ¥350 billion by the year to March 2016.
In February, Toray said it would invest ¥55 billion in Japan, France and the US to boost output of carbon fiber, mostly for the Dreamliner which is scheduled to go into service next year.
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
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RULES BROKEN: The MAC warned Chinese not to say anything that would be harmful to the autonomous status of Taiwan or undermine its sovereignty A Chinese couple accused of disrupting a pro-democracy event in Taipei organized by Hong Kong residents has been deported, the National Immigration Agency said in a statement yesterday afternoon. A Chinese man, surnamed Yao (姚), and his wife were escorted by immigration officials to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where they boarded a flight to China before noon yesterday, the agency said. The agency said that it had annulled the couple’s entry permits, citing alleged contraventions of the Regulations Governing the Approval of Entry of People of the Mainland Area into the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民進入台灣地區許可辦法). The couple applied to visit a family member in
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