UTX - ESG Investing: Is Hexcel a Responsible Investment?
Carbon fiber materials maker Hexcel (NYSE: HXL) creates products that enable jets to cut fuel consumption, cars to be lighter and stronger, and wind turbine blades to get bigger and more efficient. Here we evaluate how the company scores on The Motley Fool's environmental, social, and governance framework.
Hexcel is based in Stamford, Connecticut, with manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Europe, and China. It rakes in about $2.3 billion in revenue per year, netting nearly $300 million on the bottom line. That makes it one of the largest manufacturers of carbon fiber fabrics and composite materials in the world. These high-performance fabrics, when molded into shapes by infusing them with resins, offer great stiffness and strength, enabling engineers in many industries to create stiffer, stronger, lighter, and longer-lasting structures than can be achieved with legacy materials like steel, aluminum, titanium, or fiberglass.
Carbon fiber retains the allure of a super-high-tech miracle material. (Thousands of YouTube videos are dedicated to faking a carbon-fiber look for truck, car, and bike parts.) However, the explanation for its fast-growing use is much simpler than that: Carbon fiber composites offer more stiffness per weight than just about any other material out there. It's also very strong. (Stiffness is the ability of an object to resist deformation when a stress is applied, whereas strength is the ability of an object to withstand a stress without breaking.) This makes it ideal for use in manufacturing airplanes, where a lower weight translates into significant fuel savings, ultimately saving money while limiting its environmental impact.