France“s Saint-Gobain is to make an intensive commitment of management resources to the Chinese market with EUR 107 million allocated for equipment investments in China in 2004, up 30% on 2003, inclu…
France“s Saint-Gobain is to make an intensive commitment of management resources to the Chinese market with EUR 107 million allocated for equipment investments in China in 2004, up 30% on 2003, including increased auto glass production capacity, it has been reported. Auto glass and glass fiber reinforced materials will be boosted in Shanghai and Hangzhou, respectively. Thereafter, it is planned to double the production capacity of refractories and glass fiber reinforced materials in Beijing. Business acquisitions in China will also be intensified, and three acquisitions have already been carried out in 2004 in the ceramics and other sectors. In Japan, the company“s market presence is being boosted through the acquisition of rights to Nippon Sheet Glass“ glass filament business, and the setting-up of joint ventures with Nippon Electric Glass in refractories and Central Glass in auto glass sales. One of the company“s objectives in Japan is reportedly the need for its own research and development operation, and an R&D center will be urgently built up in cooperation with the Shanghai unit. A glass fiber reinforced materials facility is already in place at the Tsu (Mie Prefecture) site, and, in addition to the existing ceramics operation at Kozaki (Chiba Prefecture) of the refractories joint venture Saint-Gobain TM, it is planned to set up plastics and abrasives operations. Saint-Gobain“s world-wide sales turnover in 2003 was EUR 29.6 billion, of which the Asian region (including Australia) contributed only 4% or EUR 1,015 million.