SGL Carbon says that it is acquiring BMW Group's 49% equity investment in the companies’ joint ventures SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers GmbH & Co KG and SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers LLC, together referred to as ' SGL ACF'. Once the deal has been completed, SGL Group will be the sole owner of SGL ACF.
‘The carbon fibers made at our plant in Moses Lake and the fabrics that are produced from them at the Wackersdorf site have proven very successful,’ said Jürgen Köhler, CEO of SGL Group. ‘It is now time to fully integrate this expertise into SGL Group's value chain.’
This move forms part of the company’s strategy to consolidate all key activities in the value chain within the SGL Group, giving it overall responsibility. Benteler-SGL is being acquired for the same reason.
The changes in the shareholder structure of SGL ACF will not have any direct impact on its workforce, which currently totals around 450 employees, SGL says. SGL ACF will be fully assigned to the Composites – Fibers & Materials (CFM) business unit.
Lightweight construction
BMW Group has entered into an agreement with SGL Group to continue to work together on future projects involving the use of carbon. The existing supply agreements for the continued procurement of carbon products from SGL ACF for the BMW i3, the BMW i8, and the BMW 7 series into the next decade are reportedly unaffected by the transaction, along with BMW Group's CFRP-stacks production unit in Wackersdorf. The transaction will also not impact BMW AG's 18.3% shareholding in SGL Carbon SE, the companies say.
‘BMW Group will continue to rely on lightweight construction and an intelligent mix of materials, with carbon remaining a significant component,’ said Markus Duesmann, member of the board of management at BMW AG.
The SGL ACF joint venture was founded in 2009 with the aim of establishing the use of carbon as a lightweight construction material in the automotive industry and securing the supply of carbon fibers and fabrics for BMW Group.
This story is reprinted from material from SGL, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.