Asahi Glass eyes RP unit as Asian export hub

Asahi Glass Philippines, Inc. is being considered by Asahi Glass Co. Inc. of Japan as its export hub in Asia, recently designated AGPI chairman Renato R. Ermita said yesterday.

AGPI inaugurated yesterday a new float glass line with Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Trade and Industry Secretary Peter B. Favila heading the guest list.

AGPI’s upgraded float glass line is capable of producing 520 metric tons of float glass products per day and other high-value added glass products.

This year, Ermita told reporters, AGPI is projecting its exports to amount to $20 million of which solar cover glass is expected to contribute $15 million or about 75 percent of total export revenues.

With its new line, Ermita said AGPI is hoping to double its exports of its high value solar cover glass to $40 million by next year.

Other exports of AGPI are industrial glass which is used for plasma display; automotive raw glass and glass for refrigerator doors and water heaters.

Initial export market for solar cover glass, Ermita said, are China, Japan and India.

Ermita said AGPI is interested in collaborating with SunPower Corp. to make the Philippines a major manufacturing hub for solar modules and develop a downstream market for solar-based technologies.

SunPower, a leading manufacturer of ultra high-frequency silicon solar cells, is putting up a $320-million solar cell factory in the country.

Emmanuel Y. Go, who is replacing Ermita as the new president of AGPI, explained that depending on the export growth of AGPI’s solar cover glass and other high-value glass products, AGCI may infuse additional investments into AGPI.

AGCI is providing additional support to AGPI with an additional double edging machine worth about $500,000 which would increase AGPI’s glass processing capacity for export.

AGCI invested about $35 million to upgrade the existing float glass line of its Philippine subsidiary AGPI.

AGCI spent $30 million to repair and rehabilitate AGPI’s float furnace and another $5 million for its solar cover glass production facilities. AGPI’s float furnace produces majority of the company’s output.

As of December 2003, AGPI’s mother unit, AGCI had infused a total of P3.2 billion into its Philippine operation.

AGPI signed yesterday a registration agreement with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) converting its 28.13 -hectare plant in Pasig into a special economic zone that would entitle locators to fiscal incentives such as income tax holiday, duty-free importation of capital equipment, employment of foreign nationals and exemption from wharfage due and fees.

Ermita said, AGPI uses only about 60 percent of its 28.13-hectare property and could thus accommodate potential locators once the property is allowed to convert into an ecozone.

Ermita there that "there are some potential locators already who are not related to the glass industry, but are export-oriented.

Most of the potential locators, he said, are Japanese.

By converting part of the AGPI plant into an ecozone, Ermita said, it would be able to generate more employment that would also result in more taxes both for the local Pasig government as well as for the National Government.

The AGPI plant, Ermita pointed out, is ideal as an ecozone because it already has the necessary power and water supply.