Nippon Sheet Glass Co.“s Malaysian JV, Malaysian Sheet Glass Sdn. Bhd. is to expand its capacity by adding a 150,000 tonnes per year float-glass production unit to its plant in Johore, Malaysia.
Thi…
Nippon Sheet Glass Co.“s Malaysian JV, Malaysian Sheet Glass Sdn. Bhd. is to expand its capacity by adding a 150,000 tonnes per year float-glass production unit to its plant in Johore, Malaysia. This project, which has already been approved by the Malaysian government, will expand by 80% the Malaysian JV“s float-glass capacity now totalling about 170,000 tonnes per year. The additional production unit estimated at US$ 80 million is due to be started up in mid-1997. Malaysian Sheet Glass – owned by Nippon Sheet Glass (NSG), Tomen Corp. (both Japan) and Malaysian firms – is producing float glass at its Johore and Kuala Lumpur plants and processing the material sheet into such high-performance glass as heat-ray-reflecting glass, reinforced glass, laminated glass and multilayer glass. The Malaysian JV is supplying these products to Malaysia and neighbouring countries. NSG also announced that it is planning to begin production of plate glass for automobiles in mid-1997, through its recently formed JV in Tianjin. This Chinese business will be the company“s fourth production point in Asia outside of Japan, following facilities in South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia. The new JV will help Nippon Sheet Glass take advantage of accelerating demand for automotive glass that will parallel increased production of automobiles. Moreover, the company wants to secure a stable supply system for catering to the growing population of Japanese automakers in China. Local automobile production in 1995 was 1.35 million units, and industry experts believe output will reach 3 million units in the year 2000. Demand for sheet glass in such Asian countries has been expanding with high-level growth seen particularly for that for high-performance glass used for buildings and cars. In addition to Malaysian Sheet Glass, NSG has overseas float-glass production bases in China, South Korea and Taiwan and plans to add one in Vietnam by 1998. In further news, NSG has also acquired the glass-fibre cord business of Owens-Corning Canada, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Owens-Corning Fiber (US) for several million dollars. The acquisition has boosted NSG“s share in the world glass-fibre cord market from 60% to 70%, as of 24 November 1995.