26 Apr 2007
PPG Builds up a New Plant in Wuhu, Chery Collaborates with Another Fortune 500 Company
As a Chinese leading automobile manufacturer, with the strong trend of 100,000 vehicles increase in two consecutive years, Chery attracts a large number of international automobile suppliers. Following Johnson Controls, another fortune 500 company PPG Industries is “eying” at Chery. Recently, PPG Industries held a grand project launching ceremony of its new plant in Wuhu, Anhui Province. The new plant will be the 8th manufacturing base of PPG in China built to provide Chery with automotive coatings. Before this PPG has successively established seven plants in China mainland including Tianjin, Suzhou, and Zibo and in automotive industry it mainly services Volkswagen, GM, Mercedes Benz, Dongfeng Citroen, Peugeot and Hainan Mazda. This is the first time for PPG to set up a plant for the market of a Chinese brand since it entered China.
At the ceremony, Mr. Willie Wu, Director of Automotive Coatings of PPG China revealed that the investment on the first phase of Wuhu project has reached RMB 70 million, the project will be in construction by this month and is estimated to be completed by the end of December 2007. According to the plan the new plant will be put into production on January 1, 2008 and the annual capacity can meet the coatings need of one million vehicles of Chery.
Mr. Yin Taoyao, President and General Manager of Chery highly appreciated the leading technologies and process of PPG Coatings products and showed great confidence in the success of the strategic and long term cooperation between the two parties when attending this ceremony. “I believe with the success of the phase one project of PPG Wuhu, we will also see phase two and even phase three cooperations.”
PPG Industries Inc. was founded in 1883 in Pittsburgh, USA; it is a world known automotive coatings manufacturer and has been listed on Fortune 500 for 52 years. PPG’s products portfolio covers a wide range including coatings, glass, fiber glass, and chemicals. Particularly in automotive coatings industry, PPG is the reputed industry leader and nearly all automotive manufacturers are using PPG’s coatings and technologies.
According to Cathy Yan, vice president of PPG China, PPG chose to build up a new plant in Wuhu mostly because of Chery, the leader of national automotive brand enterprises and its good prospects of development, this good cooperation with Chery will certainly lead to a win-win result. When interviewed by media, Mr. Tongyao Yin added that the cooperation with PPG Industries will enable Chery’s production system more integrated and systematic hence greatly enhances Chery’s competency in international market.
Overviewing the development of the company, Chery has been strictly controlling the high quality of its products and consistently emphasizing on the same top quality of appearance and inner since its start. As automotive coatings, the “protective suit” is one of the most important part of automotive, Chery always keep focus on its quality. As early as 2002, Chery invested RMB 700 million on the world’s most advanced coatings production line from Durr Company, a German most famous specialized manufacturer while there are only five production lines in the world: three are existing in Europe, among which two in Volkswagen and the other in BMW; two are existing in Asia, among which one in Shanghai Volkswagen and the rest in Chery. PPG’s new plant in Wuhu consolidates Chery’s current advantage in the automotive coatings and meanwhile ensures a strong basis for Chery’s capacity expansion in the future.
Reader enquiries
PPG Industries
Beijing Office:
Unit 2001-2004, North Tower, Beijing
Kerry Centre, 1# Guanghua Road,
Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
100020
China
Notes for editors
About PPG：
PPG Industries Inc. was founded in 1883 in Pittsburgh, USA; it is a global supplier of paints, coatings, chemicals, optical products, specialty materials, glass and fiber glass. The company employs more than 30,000 people and has 125 manufacturing facilities and equity affiliates in more than 20 countries. Sales in 2006 were $11 billion. PPG has been listed on Fortune 500 for 52 years and is the world’s leading manufacturer of transportation coatings including automotive coatings, aerospace coatings; as well as the world’s leading manufacturer of architectural, industrial and packaging coatings. Each year, PPG invests millions of dollars in developing products, processes, and the newest technology to meet the market requirements. PPG is one of the few publicly traded companies to pay its shareholders dividends continually since 1899, and has paid increased shares to shareholders for 37 consecutive years. PPG boasts of not only first class products but also unique cooperate culture which prides its employees. According to Fortune, PPG ranked No. 1 in the “Global Most Admired”, chemical industries in 2004.
PPG is also one of the few global coatings companies that first invested in China in the 1980s. In China, PPG produces and sells eight major products, including automotive coatings, industrial coatings, automotive refinishing coatings, packaging coatings, aerospace coatings, architectural coatings, marine coatings, and fiber glass. PPG has seven manufacturing plants combined in Tianjin, Suzhou, Kunshan, Zibo, and trading companies, offices, labs and training centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. So far in China PPG has invested more than USD300 million and has more than 2,700 employees; in the Asia-Pacific region, the number of employees is 7874.
In China, the main customers of PPG Automotive coatings include GM, GE, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen, Chery, and Hainan Mazda. Nearly all auto manufacturers use PPG automotive coatings and technology. PPG Automotive Refinish ranks No. 1 in China auto refinish and passenger car markets. In 2005, 70% of China’s more than 200,000 police wagons were refinished by PPG professional auto paints. As for packaging coatings, PPG provides coatings to such well-known international and domestic companies including Coca Cola, Pepsi, Lulu and Wangwang. PPG provides aerospace coatings to customers including Boeing, Air China, Southern Air and China Eastern. Air China is using PPG coatings for the three 2008 Olympics aircraft and China Eastern plans to use PPG coatings for its 2010 World Expo aircraft.
In addition, PPG provides industrial coatings to various companies including Haier, Nokia, Motorola, Whirlpool and Dell. PPG architectural coatings are widely used in many well-known structures including those in Tian Anmen Square and the flag post, Beijing Oriental Plaza, Beijing International Exhibition Center, Beijing International Airport, the Shanghai Jinmao Building, Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Tianjin Jinhuang Building and Taida Building.
PPG’s fiber glass business entered China’s marketplace in the 1980s and established manufacturing sites in Taiwan Jiayi, Jiangsu Kunshan and Shandong Zibo. In March 2006, the world’s largest fiber glass furnace, costing $120 million, was put to production in Kunshan, boasting more than 70 thousands tons of output. In 2006, PPG invested jointly with Sinoma in Zibo to launch a fiber glass plant that will have more than 200,000 tons of annual output. A research-and-development (R&D) center in Suzhou is being planned to support PPG customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
PPG’s fiber glass business has nine world-wide manufacturing sites, four R&D centers and a network of sales and technical support professionals. It manufactures continuous-strand fiber glass products which include chopped strand, direct draw, yarn, assembled roving and rolled goods. These products are used in a wide range of applications in the transportation, energy, construction and electronic markets and in many other industries.
In R&D, PPG invests millions of dollars each year to develop, improve products, process and technologies to adapt to the new markets. Thirty-five percent of the company’s sales are from products that are less than four years old. Since 1996, PPG has received 6 R&D 100 Award presented by R&D Magazine for the most significant technology-related new products and processes.
Some significant achievements in R&D include:
–pioneered cationic electrodeposition automotive primers that have virtually eliminated rust
–developed barrier coatings to improve product shelf life and retain carbonation in beverages bottled in plastics
–introduced plastic photochromic eyewear lenses that automatically darken in sunlight
–formulated key pharmaceutical intermediates used for the critical treatment of life-threatening diseases
–introduced revolutionary insulated glass technology for residential doors and windows
–commercialized the world’s first powder clear-coat finish for cars
–developed resin-compatible fiber glass yarn for the electronics industry
More information please contact:
PPG Industry (Beijing office)
Natasha Si
Tel： +86 10 65619988 ext. 118
Email：natasha.si@ppg.com
Chery
Wang Wei
+86 0553 5923003
wangwei3@mychery.com
EMG China
Gloria Wu
Tel： +86 21 5887 8007 ext. 112
Email： gwu@emgchina.com
