By Rebecca Kanthor
CORRESPONDENT
Published: October 13, 2014 3:04 pm ET
Updated: October 13, 2014 3:10 pm ET

Image By: Rebecca Kanthor
Jushi Group Co. Ltd. is close to making a decision on a U.S. base.

After two years of deliberations, Chinese fiberglass manufacturer Jushi Group Co. Ltd. is one step closer to opening a new factory on foreign soil.

Jushi Group President Yang Guoming spoke briefly on the topic at a press conference at Jushi’s 20th annual International Conference on Fiberglass, a five-day event which attracted 1,100 guests from all over the world to visit the company’s headquarters in Tongxiang, Zhejiang province.

“The Jushi USA plant project has entered into the decision-making stage. After two years of investigation and evaluation, our Chairman Zhang Yuqiang had a meeting with the relevant departments from the USA.”

The exact locations that the company is considering are still a secret, and there was no further official mention, but the presence at the conference of representatives from the South Carolina Department of Commerce had some speculating that South Carolina could be a possible location for the new plant.

The plant is an important part of the company’s plans to expand their global footprint and be closer to their customers in the coming years. It would be an addition to the company’s already active plants in Tongxiang, Chengdu, and Jiujiang, along with its facility in Egypt, which opened earlier this year. Jushi already has sales subsidiaries in Canada, France, Spain, Singapore, India, South Africa, Japan and South Korea.

After the press conference, Deputy Manager of the Development Strategy Department Eason Shen told Plastics News, “This is not a final decision [to open a factory in the U.S.]. We are still in the decision making process.”

He said that other options for the

company’s forthcoming overseas plant could be in Mexico, South America, or Southeast Asia. “Our view is [to] look at all the suitable countries in the world and if there is a suitable place to produce fiberglass then we will do that.”

He added that the new plant would probably produce in the range of 80,000 to 100,000 tons of fiberglass per year.

The company also reported that China Fiberglass, a subsidiary of Jushi, had relocated its headquarters from Beijing to Tongxiang.

Image By: Rebecca Kanthor
Cao Jianglin

At the press conference, the company also signed exclusive distribution agreements with a host of domestic companies, along with United Kingdom-based Cathay Composites and German Helm AG.

Jushi manufactures 1 million metric tons of fiberglass a year. The company reported estimated sales are up 22 percent this year from last year but there was no change in output.

The company attributed its rise in sales to the increased interest in its relatively new E7 direct roving line, which is in high demand in the wind energy market. They also reported that domestic price increases of 6 percent were implemented in June of this year and employee salaries also rose 10.5 percent this year.