The Hai Phong Industrial Zone Management Board has granted an investment licence to Flat Group from Hong Kong (China) for a solar glass factory worth US$200 million (Bt7 billion).
The factory will cover 21.8 hectares in the Dinh Vu Industrial Park, reported Dau Tu Newspaper.
It is expected to begin operations in late 2017 with a capacity of producing about 580,000 tonnes of solar glass each year.
Haiphong holds its position among the country’s top performers in foreign direct investment attraction with 31 newly-registered and capital adjusted projects valued at more than $1.74 billion in the past five months of the year.
Large economic groups from Japan, South Korea and Belgium chose Hai Phong to land their investments thanks to the northern port city’s favourable geographic location and potential.
The city is housing more than 450 valid foreign-invested projects with a total registered capital of over $12 billion. – Viet Nam News
Ayala unit now among
biggest EMS suppliers
Ayala-led Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc (IMI) is now the 6th largest global provider of electronic manufacturing services (EMS) to the automotive industry, improving its ranking by a notch from last year.
IMI’s ranking went up based on 2015 automotive EMS revenues from 7th place in 2014, according to the roster drawn up by US-based global market research New Venture Research, IMI disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange Wednesday.
The Laguna-based EMS company said its IMI’s ranking had gone up on the back of a 9.2 per cent increase in automotive EMS revenue shown on its audited financial statement. Revenue generated by IMI from the automotive segment amounted to $349.86 million in 2015 compared to $321 million in 2014 and $276 million in 2013.
IMI supplies customised solutions in driver assistance, driver and passenger safety, car security, and body controls, among others.
Overall, IMI is among the top 50 EMS providers in the world based on the latest list of Manufacturing Market Insider based on EMS-related revenues. – Philippine Daily Inquirer

Airbus predicts surge in
after-market spending
Airbus has published its first global services forecast (GSF) and predicted that over the next 20 years, total industry after-market service spending will reach US$3 trillion per year (Bt105.3 trillion).
Of this total, the cumulative value of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) activity will exceed $1.8 trillion by 2035, Airbus predicted.
On an annual basis, Airbus predicts that the MRO spend will grow from $53 billion to over $132 billion per year, representing average year-on-year growth of 4.6 per cent.
After-market services activity is inherently linked to the growth of passenger fleets – which Airbus believes will more than double from 19,500 commercial aircraft over 100 seats at the end of 2015 to almost 40,000 by 2035.
Consequently, it said the need for pilots and technicians would commensurably increase. Today there are an estimated 200,000 active pilots who fly passenger aircraft. Airbus’ GSF predicts that this number was set to grow to some 450,000 pilots by 2035.
It said the need to replace flight crew who retire during the next 20 years would result in the need to train as many as 560,000 new pilots.
In terms of technical staff needed, Airbus GSF predicted there would be a requirement to train approximately 540,000 new technicians who would fulfil various duties across the airframes, engine, and component domains.
Airbus also said that given the accelerating demand for flights and the burgeoning airline fleets, Asia-Pacific would represent a largest portion of the market for both MRO activity and the need for new qualified pilots and technicians, while Europe and North America combined would account for approximately one third of the total MRO market spend. – The Nation