Producer
SGL Carbon SE
Wiesbaden-headquartered (Meitingen campus legacy) German specialty carbon and graphite company (XETRA: SGL). Carbon fiber tow production at Moses Lake, Washington, USA (SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers joint venture with BMW — primarily supplied BMW i3/i8 automotive body structures). PAN precursor at Lavradio, Portugal. SGL has moved away from large-scale commodity CF toward specialty graphite, ceramic brakes (Brembo-SGL JV), and specialty carbon products. The Moses Lake WA automotive CF JV with BMW (using hydroelectric power for ~50% reduced CO2 footprint) is the primary CF tow output. SGL is NOT a significant SCBA pressure vessel market player; automotive and specialty industrial are its primary carbon fiber markets.
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Did you know2024
The same isostatic graphite that SGL Carbon supplies for the hot zone of Czochralski silicon crystal growing furnaces (which pull the 300mm silicon ingots that become computer chips and solar cells) is used in the susceptors and resistance heating elements of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactors that deposit silicon carbide (SiC) for power semiconductors and gallium nitride (GaN) for RF military electronics. When TSMC, Samsung, or Infineon orders specialty graphite from SGL Carbon for their crystal growing equipment, they are buying from the same product line as defense contractors purchasing graphite for SiC epitaxial growth reactors used in radar, missile guidance electronics, and power conditioning for military vehicles. A specialty isostatic graphite supply disruption simultaneously affects civilian chip fabrication capacity and defense electronics manufacturing.
SGL Carbon SE ↗Origin2024
SGL Carbon was created in 1992 through the merger of Germany's Sigri GmbH (itself a 1985 merger of Siemens's carbon division and Ringsdorff-Werke) and the carbon operations of Great Lakes Carbon Corporation (US). The combined entity's headquarters moved to Wiesbaden. Despite being primarily a graphite and carbon materials company rooted in industrial electrode manufacturing, SGL Carbon became a critical BMW supplier in 2009 when BMW formed a 51:49 joint venture — SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers — with SGL to produce carbon fiber for the BMW i3 and i8 electric vehicles. BMW's CEO Norbert Reithofer called carbon fiber "the key material of the 21st century for the automotive industry." The Moses Lake, Washington facility was chosen specifically because hydroelectric power from the Columbia River basin makes energy-intensive carbon fiber conversion economically viable — connecting cheap Pacific Northwest electricity to the structural body panels of German electric vehicles.
SGL Carbon SE ↗