Asahi Glass will invest approximately 3 billion yen ($26 mil) to build a new plant to produce FluonETFE (a copolymer of ethylene and tetrafluoroethylene) fluorinated resin at its UK subsidiary Asahi Glass Fluoropolymers U.K.
Ltd., as part of its mid-term management plan, JIKKO-2007. Construction will start in January 2006, and is slated for completion in January 2007.
Asahi Glass manufactures at its plants in Chiba and Kashima over half of the resins it supplies globally. With demand growing in Europe, the company has decided to increase its production capacity by constructing another plant.
The new plant will allow the company to boost its ETFE production capacity by about 20%. Asahi Glass will also set up a technical center for ETFE and other melt fluorinated resins at the UK subsidiary with the aim of increasing sales in the UK.