Nippon Sheet Glass To Add New Capacity In Vietnam

Nippon Sheet Glass Co. said Monday it will install two new production lines in Vietnam as early as 2013, one for glass for solar cells and the other for ultrathin glass, which is increasingly being used in touch panels.

The investments will total 320 million dollars, or about 26 billion yen. The added output will go toward the growing markets of solar energy and smartphones.

Nippon Sheet Glass did not reveal the production capacity of the new lines, which will be built at its My Xuan facility near Ho Chi Minh City.

The solar cell glass will be of the type used in thin-film cells, which require little silicon. Nippon Sheet Glass is thought to hold about 70% of the market for this product. What makes the company's glass different is that it is manufactured and coated with a conductive film in a single process. The new Vietnamese line will be its sixth such integrated production operation.

The line for touch panel glass will be its second, after one in Maizuru, Kyoto. Nippon Sheet Glass says it has seen a sharp increase in the use of its ultrathin glass for touch panels in the past one to two years.

The firm expects the two new lines to create about 400 jobs