Furukawa Electric Restarts Active Capacity Expansion for Copper Foil

Furukawa Electric introduces 10 cathode drums to produce electrolytic copper foil at Imaichi East plant in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Imaichi East’s 4th factory will become to have 50 cathode drums. Furukawa Electric will meet increasing demand for the firm’s high functional foil, NC-WS, applied to automotive lithium ion batteries. The firm’s production capacity of NC-WS will increase to 7.5 million square meters per month in fiscal 2011 ending in March 2012 from 5.5 million square meters in fiscal 2010. The firm also plans to expand output capacity of general grade copper foil for rigid printed circuit boards at Taiwanese plant, by construction of the 2nd factory building by the end of fiscal 2014.

Capital expenditure for additional 10 drums will total several ten million yen in fiscal 2010. Furukawa Electric had already purchased cathode drums and planned to introduce the facilities in fiscal 2009. However, copper foil demand sharply declined along economic deterioration and the expansion plan was postponed. Copper foil production has gradually recovered since NC-WS is adopted to environment friendly cars. The firm’s domestic copper foil output volume, including general grade foils, is expected to increase by 23% in fiscal 2010 from fiscal 2009.

Furukawa Electric supplies 60% of its domestically produced copper foil to lithium ion batteries, in which automotive battery presently represents 10%. Mr. Kenji Kawada, Furukawa Electric’s corporate vice president, explained automotive battery rate would rise to 30-40% in fiscal 2012 after the capacity expansion. Furukawa Electric plans capital expenditure for domestic copper foil business at approximately 2 billion yen in fiscal 2010 including maintenance and renewal of existent facilities.

For Taiwanese plant to produce general grade copper foil, the firm plans approximately 4 billion yen capex for fiscal 2012-2014 to construct a new factory building and introduce cathode drums, surface treatment facilities and slitters. The output capacity is scheduled to expand by 1.4 times to 1,200 tonnes per month in fiscal 2015 from the present. The firm meets the increasing demand from rigid printed circuit board makers.

Meanwhile, Furukawa Electric keeps another plan to construct a new factory by the second half of fiscal 2012. The new factory will produce high functional copper foil, WS, mainly applied to lithium ion batteries. The firm hasn’t decided where to locate the new plant, in Japan or at overseas. Capital expenditure will be 5-10 billion yen. The output capacity is planned at 3 million square meters per month.