Montefibre Carbon gets €5.6 mn funding from Spanish govt

This financing facility provided by the Spanish Government is part of the €7.5 million investment in the transformation of Montefibre’s 302,656 square metre factory in Miranda de Ebro, Spain. Montefibre Carbon is adapting its polymerisation and dope preparation with a potential capacity of 75,000 metric tons per year, and 4 of its 7 spinning lines to bring to market some 17,000 tons per year of its large-tow precursor fibre in the next three years, with a plan to increase its production to 33,000 tons per year by 2025.

All the adaptations and transformations of the Miranda de Ebro plant are carried out with Montefibre Carbon's own proprietary technology, which is based on the original development of precursor fibre by Monsanto at the end of the 1950s in Knoxville, Tennessee (still used by the world’s leading carbon fibre producers), but improved upon through more than 20 years of research into PAN precursors by the Montefibre group.

Spanish Government support to Montefibre Carbon and Spanish composite manufacturing has been reinforced by the visit of the secretary-general of industry and small and medium-sized enterprises of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Raúl Blanco Díaz on October 7.

Secretary-general Blanco met with the Montefibre Carbon president, Alfonso Cirera Santasusana, its financial director, Eduardo A McAffer, and Joan Parra Farré, executive vice president of Leitat (Montefibre’s technological partner). Blanco was accompanied by the director-general of industry and small and medium enterprises, Galo Gutiérrez Monzonís, the deputy director-general of management, Juan Ignacio Moratinos, and the mayoress of Miranda de Ebro, Aitana Hernando.

During the visit, Blanco and his team had the opportunity to get to know firsthand the historic Montefibre plant that has undergone several renovations (the most recent a total renovation in 2005) since it was originally built in 1973, and were taken with the impressive dimensions of the plant and its enormous production capacity, which will allow Spain to have a national champion in the production of carbon fibre to ensure the competitiveness of manufacturers of composite materials, parts, and structures, for sectors such as wind power, automotive, and shipbuilding. Both politicians highlighted the importance of the innovation and development work that is being done in the Miranda plant and look forward to ongoing successful relationship.

Montefibre Carbon is a leading company in precursor fibre, as it was of acrylic fibre for over 40 years, and has focused its attention on producing large and ultra-large precursor fibre to be used in high-volume, cost-sensitive mass markets like automotive, marine and wind energy applications. The company has recently introduced an 80k tow precursor fibre in qualities M500 and M600, which it will begin selling in 2020, and is developing a quality M700 for secondary uses of its 80K in aeronautic applications.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (PC)