Asahi Glass To Build Plant In Foshan, China

Asahi Glass is to build an automotive glass plant in Foshan, Guangdong Province, its second plant in China. Construction of the JPY 6.5BN plant to make laminated and tempered glass will begin early 2007 and mass production is scheduled to start in the 1Q of 2008. Output of automobiles in China has sharply risen since its entry into the WTO in 2002, amounting to 5.71M/units in 2005, up 13% on 2004. The figure made China the world's third in auto production, behind the USA and Japan, overtaking Germany. Chinese production of automobiles is expected to continue growing at about 8%/pa, exceeding 9M in 2010, almost the same level as that of Japan. In response, demand for automotive glass is forecast to increase substantially.