Far Eastern Shanghai aiming for No. 1 maker of bottle chips in Asia

Taipei, Sept. 20, 2004 (CENS)--Far Eastern Textile, Taiwan's leading textile manufacturer, is actively expanding its operations in mainland China, particularly for the manufacture of polyester (PE) chips.

Cheng Po, general manager of Far Eastern's operations in Shanghai, disclosed that the company's Shanghai plant has invested more than NT$1 billion (US$2.94 million at US$1 = NT$34) to enlarge its operations, which is now under the third-stage expansion construction. Besides, DuPont's petrochemical plant in Suzhou of Jiangsu Province acquired by Far Eastern is slated to be handed over to the company in October.

With the expansion of the Shanhai plant and the participation of DuPont's Suzhou plant, Far Eastern is expected to boost its annual output of PE chips to 500,000 metric tons in 2005 from current 200,000 metric tons, making it the largest manufacturer of bottle chips in Asia. And today the world's leading soft drink makers such as Coca Cola and Pesi Cola are steady buyers of Far Eastern bottle chips.

Today the mainland is the world's largest market for bottle chips, with annual market demand of 23 million metric tons of the chips for soft drinks and 25 million metric tons for beer products. The mainland's annual output of PE chips is expected to soar to 2.5 million metric tons from current 1.5 million metric tons. However, to meet its huge market need, there is still much room for foreign manufacturers to exercise their strength there.

Other than bottle chips, Far Eastern is also actively enhancing its textile operations in the mainland, including the fabrication of polyester filament, textured yarn, and synthetic fiber. If all the expansions are completed, the company's textile operations in mainland China is very likely to parallel or even outpace its operations in Taiwan.

Far Eastern is also building a new factory near its existing plant in Shanghai to turn out purified terephalic acid (PTA). In addition, the company will set up a R & D center in Shanghai as well, Cheng stated.

Last year Far Easter's operations in Shanghai generated revenues of 2.2 billion renminbi (about US$64.71 million), and this year the revenues are estimated to jump by around 30% to 3 billion renminbi (about US$88.24 million).