Dow Corning Corp, the bankrupt maker of silicon-based products, said it's seeking to make a major investment in Asia for another plant and plans to focus on China.
The company, based in Midland, Michigan, wants to invest "several hundred million of dollars" on a plant in Asia and is considering several sites in China, Chinese unit president Ian Thackwray said at a chief-executive-officer conference in Hong Kong.
Dow Corning, the world's largest supplier of silicon, has spent US$30 million on a plant and laboratory in Songjiang Industrial Park (
"For Dow Corning to remain a leader in silicon-related products and services, we need to have a strong presence in China," Thack-wray said in an interview on Thursday.
Dow and other companies, including Metro AG of Germany, are seeking to increase income from China, which is growing at the fastest pace among the global top 10 economies. They're drawn to the cheap labor and consumer prospects presented by 1.3 billion people in the world's most populous nation.
"There has been a quite a continued shift of global manufacturing base to China and that will be the case in the coming 10 years," said George Leung, an economist at HSBC Securities Asia Ltd.
Dow Corning, a venture between Dow Chemical Co and Corning Inc, makes silicon-based products, materials used for electronic goods and emulsions in China, a market the company entered a decade ago. The company took a majority stake in a rubber compounding business in Shanghai in July.
More than half of Dow Corning sales from about 7,000 products and services are from outside of the US. The company, which makes sealants, coatings and other products made from silicon, a plastic with temperature-resistant properties of glass, had sales of US$2.61 billion last year.
Thackwray didn't give a sales breakdown for China or Asia.
In Asia, Dow Corning has eight plants, including three in Japan, two in India and one each in South Korea, China and Thailand. The company has warehouse operations in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Corning Inc, the world's biggest maker of glass for liquid crystal displays, plans to spend US$180 million expanding its glass-making facilities in this country, the Central News Agency reported last last month.
Corning will expand an existing plant to meet Taiwan's growing demand for glass used in flat panels. The expanded plant is slated to start production in the second quarter of next year, the report said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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