Toray Industries, Inc. (Toyko; www.toray.com) announced its decision to establish a joint venture company in the Republic of Korea together with MCM Co., Ltd., a group company of the Chung Ho Nais Group, which is engaged in the sales of water purifiers and air cleaners. The company will be capitalized at 6 billion won (about 600 million yen), with MCM having a 60% stake and Toray owning 40%.
The new company, named M&T Engineering Co. Ltd. (M&TE), will combine the assembling and processing as well as automation expertise of MCM with Toray’s integrated design and development technology starting from fibers and filter materials to assembled units, so as to build a local production setup for high performance filters necessary to expand the business in Republic of Korea as well as to supply to Korean manufacturers with global presence.
The Chung Ho Nais Group has a high share of the South Korean water purifier market, and has a broad business base with sales to major global players in the country in addition to exports to some 60 countries.
Toray has been producing non-woven fabric for air filters since 2012 at Toray Fibers (Nantong) Co., Ltd. (TFNL), its fiber production base in China, building a local production and supply structure to contribute to the measures against atmospheric pollution.
M&TE, the new company, will assemble filters that use TFNL’s non-woven fabric for high-performance filters, thus accelerating the sales expansion in the country as well as around the world by directly supplying to major home electronics and automobile manufacturers.
The global demand for air filters is expected to continue growing primarily in Asia and other emerging countries. In particular, the Korean market is an important target, given the anticipated spreading of the filter business to other parts of the world led by global players in various fields such as automobile and home electronics, in addition to the steady demand for the air cleaner application.
Toray and MCM will position M&TE as the base for global expansion of the air filter business, and along with strengthening the response to the local customers, will implement a strategy that will leverage the superiority of both companies while identifying new areas of applications.