Teijin expands in Europe with Inapal acquisition

Teijin Limited (Tokyo, Japan) announced Aug. 22 that it has agreed to acquire Inapal Plasticos SA (Leça do Balio, Porto, Portugal). Inapal is a Tier One supplier of composite components to the automotive and heavy truck industries. The company’s capabilities include Class A body panels, structural and underbody components using a variety of materials and processes, including sheet molding compound (SMC), carbon fiber SMC, pre-preg compression molding (PCM), direct long fiber thermoplastic (D-LFT) and glass mat thermoplastic (GMT). The company has two manufacturing locations in Portugal serving a variety of European OEM customers including Jaguar, Land Rover, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Bentley. 
 
In addition to its automotive and heavy truck business, Inapal supplies components to the heating and cooling industry, as well as passenger seating components to the bus and rail industries. The company had sales of EUR 31.9 million (USD 37 million) in 2017. 
 
“We are leveraging our lightweight, strong, high-performance materials and integrated composite technologies as one of the key focuses of the transformation strategies for our medium-term management plan,” says Jun Suzuki, president and CEO, Teijin Limited. “The acquisition of Continental Structural Plastics [CSP, Auburn Hills, MI, US]  positioned us as a Tier One supplier of high-performance composites to the global automotive market. In July, we announced the acquisition of J.H. Ziegler GmbH [Ziegler, Achern, Germany], a leading supplier of automotive interior materials in Germany. Now the acquisition of Inapal enables us to deliver on our promise to stakeholders to expand our technologies on a global basis, including in Europe. We will seek synergies by leveraging the business capabilities of CSP, Ziegler and Inapal to continue to grow as a supplier of multi-material components. It also enables us to demonstrate our commitment to evolve for future society as an enterprise that delivers new value.”
 
“The addition of Inapal positions CSP well as a global leader in the lightweight composites industry,” adds Steve Rooney, CEO of CSP. “With this, we can truly say we are among the world’s largest suppliers of lightweight composite components to the automotive industry, we are strategically located to meet our customers’ needs, and we’re ready for the rapid changes that are taking place in the industry today.”