Taiwan Glass Actively Stepping Up Thin-Glass Production

Taipei, March 24, 2011 (CENS)--Taiwan Glass Ind. Co. is mulling allocating more production capacity for the manufacture of higher-price and-margin super-thin glass, according to company sources.

The massive earthquake in Japan affected production of thin glass for touch smartphones and tablet PCs applications, making numerous orders switched to Taiwan.

Taiwan Glass said that it has won orders for thin glass exceeding its existing production capacity by 50%. The company's major product categories include flat glass, fiber glass, and glass for containers, tableware and kitchenware. In recent years, Taiwan Glass has been actively venturing into the super-thin glass field to grab more business opportunities from high-tech devices.

Industry sources said that after the Japanese earthquake many international high-tech companies have switched their orders for raw materials to new suppliers in Taiwan or other nations.

Before the March 11 earthquake in Japan, Taiwan Glass said, orders for super-thin glass had exceeded the company's total capacity by 30%, and the capacity shortfall has risen to about 50% now. Currently, the firm's monthly capacity of super-thin glass is about 12 million tons, and additional capacity can hardly be generated from existing lines. Accordingly, Taiwan Glass decided to give up production of some low-price and -margin products to make more capacity for super-thin glass.

In late 2010, Taiwan Glass began constructing a new plant to produce super-thin glass products for especially touch-panel applications. The new factory is scheduled to kick off mass production in the third quarter of 2012 with initial annual capacity of 35,000 tons of 0.5-1.1mm super-thin glass. Total investment in the new factory is about NT$3 billion (US$100 million), while the facility is expected to contribute an annual production value of about NT$2 billion (US$66.7 million).