St. Louis-based carbon fiber manufacturer Zoltek Cos. Inc. has begun manufacturing operations at
its Zoltek de Mexico facility in Guadalajara. Zoltek acquired the textile acrylic plant in October
2007, modified it to produce acrylic precursor for use in carbon fiber production and installed
four continuous carbonization lines.
“The Mexico plant now enables us to meet anticipated major increases in demand in the wind
energy and other large emerging commercial applications,” said Zsolt Rumy, chairman and CEO,
Zoltek. “We have substantially increased our capacity to produce low-cost carbon fibers on a timely
and extremely cost-effective basis, and further extended our leadership in the growing commercial
advanced composite market.”
According to company estimates, the Guadalajara facility eventually could produce 60,000
metric tons of precursor material annually, supporting the production of more than 27,000 metric
tons of carbon fibers.
As part of its strategy to commercialize carbon fibers as a widely used building material,
Zoltek has expanded its management team, recentered its research and development programs, and
heightened its efforts to improve operations.
November/December 2008
