Jun 16 2010
Lihua International, Inc. (Nasdaq: LIWA) ("Lihua" or the "Company"), a leading Chinese developer, designer, manufacturer, marketer and distributor of low cost, high quality alternatives to pure copper products, such as refined copper products and superfine and magnet wire, including copper clad aluminum ("CCA") wire, today announced the completion of a new 32,000 square-foot warehouse located within its current plant in Danyang.
The Company also announced that it is constructing a new 25,000-ton smelter at its existing copper recycling facility, which is expected to come on-line during the second half of 2010.
"Expansion of our infrastructure is key to supporting our rapid growth and our ability to address increasing demand within the large pure copper market," said Jianhua Zhu, Chairman and CEO of Lihua. "By the end of 2011, we are targeting annual refined copper production of 100,000 tons, an increase of 300% compared with our refined copper production in 2009. We expect that these additions to our facilities will help us achieve our corporate objectives, including our 2010 financial targets of up to 40% year-over-year growth in gross profit and non-GAAP net income growth of up to 42%."
The new warehouse facility contains a total of 21 rooms, 15 of which will be used for the re-packaging and cleaning of scrap copper prior to refining, with the remaining six rooms used for the storage of refined copper rods. This new warehouse was constructed to support Lihua's planned increase in refined copper manufacturing capacity.
The new smelter, which is expected to launch during the second half of 2010, will double Lihua's annual refined copper production capacity to 50,000 tons in an effort to better address the continued growth in demand for the Company's refined copper products.
In addition, Lihua remains on track to begin construction of a new plant which will further increase the Company's smelting capacity. The construction of the new plant, which will accelerate Lihua's production of refined copper products, will begin during the fourth quarter of 2010, and will increase Lihua's annual refinery capacity from 50,000 tons to 100,000 tons. The construction of the new plant and additional smelting facility is expected to be completed in approximately one year.