Ferro Corp., Cleveland, says it will begin construction of a 16,500 square-meter facility in Suzhou, China, during the fourth quarter, 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.
"This project positions us to better serve the booming Southeast Asian market, where solar cell production is forecast to grow at over 40 percent through 2011," says Barry Russell, vice president, Ferro Electronic Material Systems." A local site will allow us to more cost-efficiently produce and deliver our high-demand aluminum pastes to the market."
Russell noted that this new production capability will be complemented 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.
