Taiwan Glass to build largest glass conglomerate across Strait

The increased investments will be used in producing, processing and marketing of float glass in the mainland.

In January this year Taiwan Glass won approval from the Investment Commission under the Ministry of Economic Affairs to invest US$8 million to set up a glass plant in Tianjin, which will begin mass production in June next year.

So far Investment Commission has approved Taiwan Glass to invest NT$7.499 billion (US$235.07 million at US$1:NT$31.9) in the mainland through a third-party place. The total investments in the mainland account for 54.08 percent of the company's paid-in capital. Real investments there have amounted to NT$7.18 billion (US$225.07 million), commanding 51.78 percent of its paid-in capital.

In addition, the company is also building a TF-4 float-glass plant in Lukang of Changhua County, central Taiwan. With total investment of NT$2 billion (US$62.69 million), the plant will begin mass production in June next year at an annual capacity of 180,000 metric tons. At that time, the company will see total production capacity across the Taiwan Strait reach 2.27 million metric tons per year, becoming the largest producer of glass in both Taiwan and the mainland.

Taiwan Glass has recognized NT$1.229 billion (US$38.52 million) in profits made from mainland investments over the past three years, including NT$226 million (US$7.08 million) in 2002, NT$171 million (US$5.36 million) in 2003, and NT$831 million (US$26.05 million) in 2004.

The company registered pretax profits of NT$1.765 billion (US$55.32 million) on sales of NT$7.104 billion (US$222.69 million) in the first half of this year. Pretax earnings per share reached NT$1.1 (US$0.03).