Furukawa Electric to Expand Electrolytic Cu Foil Output for Battery

Furukawa Electric announced on Tuesday the firm builds electrolytic copper foil plant in Taiwan for 6.9 billion yen to serve lithium ion battery industry. The new plant with monthly 500 tonnes output capacity will start operation in September 2012. The firm also expands the domestic capacity from current 550 tonnes to 1,000 tonnes at Imaichi plant in Tochigi by March 2012 for around 100 million yen to meet growing demand for automobile.

The firm decided the offshore plant to meet growing demand worldwide while the firm has made the high functional foil production only in domestic plant. The firm establishes wholly owned subsidiary, Furukawa Electric Copper Foil Taiwan for the new plant in Tou Lie city, Yun Lin country where Furukawa Electric already has commodity grade foil plant for printed circuit board.

Furukawa Electric converts existing line for commodity grade foil at Imaichi to expand the production of functional foil for lithium ion battery.

The firm has more than 40% of world market share in copper foil for battery. The firm expects the share will increase to 60% in 2013 by the expansion. The firm expects the world share will reach 80% for automotive application when the foil production increases from current 100-200 tonnes per month to 1,000 tonnes level.

The firm’s electrolytic copper foil production is monthly 1,000 tonnes in Japan and 815 tonnes in Taiwan compared with the output capacity at 1,500 tonnes and 900 tonnes respectively. The Taiwanese plant operates at higher level under strong demand for commodity grade foil while the domestic plant suffers from slow demand for printed circuit board.