Asahi Glass Co. Ltd. (AGC) recently announced it has decided to establish an automotive glass plant at its subsidiary AGC Flat Glass in Suzhou, the third of its kind in China. AGC intends to stop running the manufacturing facilities for photovoltaic cover glass at AFS, which are currently in operation, and convert the relevant assets into a plant for producing automotive glass. AGC will reportedly invest a total of about ¥4.5 billion (~ $46 million) in this project, planning to start mass-producing automotive glass in the first quarter of 2015.

In China, auto production is reportedly expected to exceed 20 million units in 2013 and continue growing at a high rate of 5% annually. Because of this, demand for automotive glass is projected to increase steadily. Since its 1995 investment in an automotive glass company in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province, AGC has reportedly strengthened and improved the automotive glass business, and it established an automotive glass plant in Foshan, Guangdong Province, in 2006. To address the growing demand for automotive glass, AGC reportedly considers it necessary to further expand production capacity for this glass.

The new automotive glass plant is expected to have an annual production capacity to equip approximately 1.2 million vehicles in total; the company’s total production in China is projected to reach about 3.6 million in total with the addition of this new plant.

For more information, visit www.agc.com.