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16 Nov 2005  -  United States

Hexcel building carbon fiber plant in Europe

Hexcel Corporation (NYSE/PCX: HXL) provided details of its previously announced capacity expansion for Magnamite® carbon fiber. As part of that program, Hexcel is building a carbon fiber plant near Madrid, Spain. In the United States, the Company is adding an additional carbon fiber line to its Salt Lake City, UT facility and additional capacity at its Decatur, AL facility. The new U.S. line will be aerospace qualified by the end of 2007 and the Spanish line in 2008.
These additional carbon fiber manufacturing lines constitute the previously announced $100 million project that will increase Hexcel’s global carbon fiber capacity by about 50%. Approximately half of this capacity expansion will be provided by the new Spanish plant, where one carbon fiber line will be installed initially, with space to add further lines as required to meet demand from new programs. Hexcel is the leader in advanced composite materials for aerospace and also is a leading producer of high strength and intermediate modulus carbon fibers used in military and commercial aircraft, launch vehicles and satellites.
Mr. David E. Berges, Hexcel’s Chairman, President and CEO said, “The large increase in carbon fiber composites usage in commercial and military aircraft is driving Hexcel to expand its manufacturing capacity to support growing customer demand. Hexcel is already the world’s largest producer of intermediate modulus carbon fiber, a type of fiber that is being increasingly specified in new aerospace programs, and we are pleased to establish European manufacturing of carbon fiber to complement our existing and expanded capacity in the United States. With this expansion, we should be very well positioned to support the growth in our European customers’ product requirements such as the full range of Airbus commercial airliners, business jets from Dassault, engine nacelles from Aircelle, helicopters from Eurocopter and other military aircraft from EADS.”

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Hexcel Corporation is a leading advanced structural materials company. It develops, manufactures and markets lightweight, high-performance reinforcement products, composite materials and composite structures for use in commercial aerospace, space and defense, electronics, and industrial applications.

Source : Hexcel