Leading fiberglass producer Jushi Group Co. Ltd. has announced that its third furnace in the Suez region of Egypt will come open in the second half of 2017.
The production facility will be completed three years earlier than planned, and will have a capacity of 200,000 metric tons per year.
“Through the implementation and completion of our worldwide globalization strategy, serving Europe and North America, we can supply to every continent in the world,” explained James Wang, general manager of international sales at the Zhejiang, China-based Jushi.
Jushi broke ground on its first U.S. fiberglass production line in Richmond, S.C., in December.
“Construction [in South Carolina] will finish and the facility will come on stream in the final quarter of 2018, employing 400 workers,” he added.
Helm AG is Jushi's distributing partner in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Commenting on the Egyptian expansion, Kirstin Kettler, head of fiberglass at Helm AG, said his company will “intensify our customer service, offering silotruck deliveries to our chopped strands thermoplastics customers with immediate effect.
“For our customers, this means significant cost savings and an efficiency increase,” Kettler added.
“The European thermoplastics market is growing constantly at a rate of 5 to 6 percent per year. At 1.5 million tonnes of glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastic compounds (including LFT compounds), thermoplastics are representing 54 percent of the European market,” explained Michael Effing, senior advisor to Hamburg, Germany-based Helm.