Oct 10 2007
Ferro Corporation announced today that it will begin construction in fourth quarter 2007 on a 16,500-square-meter (177,604-square-foot) facility in Suzhou, China, where it will produce aluminum pastes for the Southeast Asia solar cell manufacturing market.
The new site is expected to begin production in the third quarter of 2008 and will include expansion capacity to accommodate expected growth of Ferro Electronic Material Systems' business positions in China and Asia for products such as silver pastes, surface technology products, multi-layer materials, electronic glass, and precious metal powders.
"Ferro currently is the leading supplier of conductive pastes to the worldwide solar industry," noted Barry Russell, Vice President, Electronic Material Systems. "This project positions us to better serve the booming Southeast Asian market, where solar cell production is forecast to grow at over 40% through 2011. A local site will allow us to more cost-efficiently produce and deliver our high-demand aluminum pastes to the market. It is yet another step in our key strategy to move support closer to our customers."
Russell noted that this new production capability will be complimented by Ferro's existing local applications laboratories in Suzhou and in Tsukuba, Japan, which serve customers with custom paste production, technical support and application problem solving.
Ferro's new solar paste production site will adjoin other Ferro facilities in the Suzhou Industrial Park, where the Company currently produces frits and colors used in tile and porcelain enamel coatings and electrolytes used in the manufacture of lithium batteries and other specialty chemical products.
Ferro Electronic Material Systems has been supplying high-value conductive pastes to the solar industry for more than 25 years.