The Malaysian joint venture of Japan“s Asahi Glass Co., Bintulu Silica Industries Sdn. Bhd., is scheduled to start producing sodium silicate cullet this month at a 70,000 tonnes/year US$ 26 million p…
The Malaysian joint venture of Japan“s Asahi Glass Co., Bintulu Silica Industries Sdn. Bhd., is scheduled to start producing sodium silicate cullet this month at a 70,000 tonnes/year US$ 26 million plant which was completed at the end of 1996. Sodium silicate cullet is a secondary alkali product used as a raw material for silica products such as water glass, zeolite, white carbon and catalysts. Asahi Glass Group holds about one-third of the Japanese sodium silicate cullet market estimated at about 400,000 tonnes/year including imports. Bintulu Silica Industries was established with capital of US$ 5.5 million in January 1995. The joint venture is owned 51% by Asahi Glass, 29% and 10% by two Japanese trading firms, and 10% by a local Malaysian quartz sand mining/refining firm. The Malaysian plant will produce sodium silicate cullet by using quartz sand supplied by the Malaysian miner/refiner and natural soda ash imported from Asahi Glass“s US joint venture, SSAJV. All the production will be imported into Japan and used for Asahi Glass Group“s production of silica products.