To meet strong automotive industry demand for carbon fiber, Germany's SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers plans to triple capacity of its U.S. plant at Moses Lake, Washington, which produces exclusively for German carmaker BMW.

The $200 million expansion to 9,000 t/y, set for start-up in early 2015, follows a previous capacity upgrade costing $100 million and will create 120 new jobs.

Due to the automated production processes, the expansion will allow BMW Group to use the carbon fiber material also in more than one model series in the future, at competitive costs and in large quantities, SGL said.

Currently, Moses Lake has two production lines, producing exclusively for BMW with total annual output of about 3,000 t of carbon fiber. In the next few months, SGL said it will commission a third and fourth production line doubling the plant's size to 6,000 t/y. The plant's energy input is generated completely by hydropower.

The German chemical group claims to be the world's fastest growing carbon fiber producer. In its partnership with the carmaker, CEO Jürgen Köhler said SGL "is doing pioneering work" to establish CFRP as a material in large-series lightweight automotive production.