Home / News / Steve Rooney becomes GM Teijin’s composites business

Steve Rooney becomes GM Teijin's composites business

24 Feb '21

3 min read

Steve Rooney. Pic: Business Wire

Steve Rooney, CEO of Continental Structural Plastics (CSP), a Teijin Group company, has been appointed general manager of the Composites Business Unit of Teijin. Rooney will report directly to Akimoto Uchikawa, who is now president of the Materials Business. Rooney will be responsible for all composites operations in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Rooney will continue to be a Teijin Group Corporate Officer, while Uchikawa becomes a Teijin Group Executive Officer. The new roles become effective April 1, 2021.

As general manager of the Composites Business Unit, Rooney will be responsible for all the composites operations in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. This will include Japanese composites operations in Matsuyama and Ibigawa; and the operations of Inapal Plásticos, Benet Automotive and Teijin Automotive Centre Europe, in addition to CSP’s existing operations in Pouancé, France. It also includes the operations of CSP Victall.

In January, CSP Victall, originally a 50/50 joint venture with Victall Qingdao Railway, became a wholly owned subsidiary of Teijin via a share transfer. This transfer took place to allow Victall to focus on its core rail business, while CSP Victall continues to expand the use of advanced composites among Chinese automotive OEMs.

“This organisational change is an important step in allowing us to unify Teijin’s composites operations around the world,” said Rooney. “We will be able to standardise operations and systems across all facilities globally, enabling us to provide our customers with seamless service and access to leading-edge composite technologies, regardless of where they are located.”

“I am convinced Steve will strengthen our capabilities across our composites operations. The composites footprint we now have further enables us to meet our customers’ needs for lightweight but strong automotive components,” said Uchikawa. “As we integrate these global operations, we are committed to embarking on a robust life cycle assessment process, including a complete analysis of the total amount of carbon dioxide we emit during our production process.”

Specifically, Teijin’s Composites Business Unit comprises manufacturing operations in the United States (CSP); Mexico (CSP); Czech Republic (Benet Automotive); France (CSP); Portugal (Inapal Plásticos); China (CSP Victall); and Japan (Teijin). It also includes research and development facilities in Auburn Hills, Michigan; Pouancé, France; Wuppertal, Germany; Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic; Tangshan, China; and Matsuyama, Japan. These advanced glass and carbon fibre composites operations provide lightweight, high-strength automotive components ranging from electric vehicle battery covers and enclosures to pickup boxes, roof systems and Class A body panels. CSP is among the largest compounders of composite materials in world, while Teijin is the world’s third largest producer of carbon fibre.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SV)