In February 2021, French automotive supplier Faurecia acquired a majority share of CLD a Chinese manufacturer of high-pressure gas cylinder.

The transaction would be officially completed and the company be affiliated subject to the approval of the regulatory authority of China. As of March 16, no approval has been obtained yet.

After completion of the transaction, Faurecia and CLD would promote their development and production of cylinders of Type 3 (alumina +CFRP) and Type 4 (resin liner +CFRP) for fuel cell vehicles.

According to Faurecia, currently only cylinders of Type 3 are approved for sale in China, but with the business transactions with CLD, the company would like to apply to China and the neighboring areas its technology of the Type 4 cylinders which are now being sold in the European market.

The reason why Faurecia came to acquire CLD’s share at this time is that the company expects the Chinese FCV market to be one of the growing markets in the future. The company forecasts that the number of FCV to be sold in China will exceed 1 million by 2030, and wishes to promote sales of cylinders through CLD in China.

The acquired company CLD is one of the tree foremost manufacturers of high-pressure gas cylinders in China, having a high-pressure gas cylinder plant producing 30,000 annually at two locations in Liaoning Province of Northeast China. CLD has experiences of the OEM supply of its cylinders to Toyota Motor and Hyundai Motor.

Faurecia was established in 1997 by the merger between Ecia of the parts division of the PSA Group (formerly French automobile producer called PSA Peugeot/Citroen) and “Bertrand Fort” of French car seat manufacturer, now having 248 business operations in 37 countries and 37 development bases over the world.