Corning Inc. has sold its former semiconductor glass plant in Goose Creek, South Carolina to a defense contractor for USD 5 million. The sale is Corning“s third major disposal of excess property from…
Corning Inc. has sold its former semiconductor glass plant in Goose Creek, South Carolina to a defense contractor for USD 5 million. The sale is Corning“s third major disposal of excess property from its portfolio in the past month. Corning Inc. opened the plant in 1997 to boost output of specialty glass for stepper lenses used in the manufacturing of semiconductor chips for the computer industry. Facing weak sales, it closed the plant in 2004 and consolidated manufacturing operations for the products in Canton and Fairport, New York. According to the Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, Corning Inc. invested USD 75 million in the factory, which drew nationwide attention, including an article in Fortune magazine in 1998. The newspaper said Corning never reached its target of employing 200 workers, firstly because of the Asian financial crisis and later because of the bursting of the technology bubble. The plant employed about 100 people when Corning announced it would close. The Corning Inc. site includes four hectares of undeveloped land for expansion. The sale of the South Carolina property follows the disposal in March 2005 to Eastman Kodak Co. of the former Corning Inc. photonics plant in the Canal Ponds Business Park in Rochester New York for an undisclosed price. The first was the 41,000 square-meter former Corning Asahi Video Products Co. plant near State College, Pennsylvania. The plant, which closed in June 2003, was sold to Dale summit Group, a partnership of local businessmen.