Japan’s Teijin to acquire US-based CSP for $825m

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Teijin is acquiring US-based automotive composite supplier Continental Structural Plastics Holdings Corporation (CSP) for $825m, the Japanese producer said on Tuesday.

The shares of CSP will be purchased by Teijin Holdings USA Inc, the Teijin Group’s holding company in the US, it said in a statement.

The acquisition is scheduled to be completed in December this year after satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval, Teijin said.

Once the deal is completed, CSP will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Teijin, it said.

CSP produces thermoset composites for the automotive industry and is the world’s largest sheet moulding compound (SMC) manufacturer for automakers, according to Teijin.

The company has 14 facilities in the US, Mexico, France and China and about 3,200 employees. CSP posted consolidated sales of over $634m in 2015.

“Teijin will benefit from CSP’s established sales channels in the North American automotive market, which will enable the combined business to provide a broader range of solutions that meet automakers’ demands for weight reduction and durability, utilizing the company’s thermoplastic composite technologies,” it said.

With the CSP deal, Teijin aims to expand its offerings beyond carbon fiber and glass fiber materials, in collaboration with other materials producers, according to the company.

“Teijin intends to expand its product portfolio from materials to component design, implement a global supply chain and help achieve vehicle weight reductions in order to comply with tighter environmental regulations being introduced after 2020,” it said.

“Environmental concerns such as CO2 emission reductions and improvements in fuel efficiency are now global issues; accelerated development of tough and lightweight eco-friendly composite components is therefore a pressing task in the automotive industry,” the company added.

Photo (top): An assembly line at a car factory in Japan (Masatoshi Okauchi/REX/Shutterstock)

The automotive industry is a major global consumer of petrochemicals which contributes more than a third of the raw material costs of an average vehicle. ICIS tracks the movement of petrochemical raw material costs in auto production both globally and regionally with the weighted ICIS Basket of Automotive Petrochemicals (IBAP).

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