Chinese glass firm plans $312-M factory in RP

Hebei Jingniu Crystal Ball Group Co. Ltd., (CBC) of China plans to set up a $312-million glass manufacturing facility in the country to serve Southeast Asia and Japan’s growing demand for industrial glass, Trade and Industry Cesar V. Purisima said yesterday.

"The Chinese glass manufacturing plant would be the biggest single investment of China in the Philippines," Purisima said.

According to Purisima, the Chinese investor chose to locate its plant in the Philippines because of the skilled Filipino workers and as a base for its exports to the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and Japan.

CBC, Purisima disclosed, plans to put up a Crystal Ball Industry Park either in Subic or Bataan.

"CBC initially looked at Subic where it wants to put up a 100- to 130-hectare industrial park, but the available space in Subic is only 50 hectares," Purisima said.

The government, Purisima said, is offering CBC an alternative location at the Bataan Export Processing Zone (BEPZ) where it can put up the 130- hectare industrial park.

CBC plans to put up two online float coated glass lines; two high tech rolling crystallite glass line; one glass deep processing line and one crystallite glass deep processing line.

It will also set up one power generating plant with a capacity of 30,000 KVA (kilo volt ampere) and one plastic yacht line which is currently not produced in the Philippines.

The Philippines, however, Purisima said, will also suggest to CBC to manufacture tempered automotive glass since it is no longer being manufactured by Asahi Glass Philippines.

Asahi terminated its local manufacturing operations for tempered automotive glass last year.

Asahi transferred its production of tempered automotive glass to Thailand. The transfer was part of Asahi’s regional alignment and partly due to the low capacity utilization of Asahi’s local plant.

Asahi used to supply about 80 percent of the tempered glass requirement of local automotive manufacturers.

With the effectivity of the Asean Free Trade Area-Common Effective Preferential Tariff (AFTA-CEPT) scheme, the tariff on imported tempered glass is now down to three percent.

CBC reportedly plans to start operation by the fourth quarter of next year and is expected to create 15,000 direct and indirect jobs.

CBC’s main products include a variety of float sheet glass, online solar control reflective glass, high tech rolling crystallite glass with all kinds of color and specifications.

Its products are exported to more than 70 countries in Europe, Asia, America and Africa.

CBC has already set up manufacturing and trading companies in Zimbabwe and Kenya.