ASAHI Glass Co. Ltd. (AGC) turned over on Wednesday its manufacturing plant in the Philippines to TQMP Glass Manufacturing Corp., following the latter’s acquisition of all the shares of its wholly owned subsidiary, AGC Flat Glass Philippines Inc. (AGPH).
Masahiro Takeda, AGC regional president for Asia Pacific, Building & Industrial Glass Co., told reporters that, while they are transferring the production facility to the new owner, their company still wants to work with TQMP to become its exclusive distributor for its value-added glass products.
“I like to cooperate [with them] because, in our Group, we now have many kinds of value-added glass like a coating glass. I like to ask his company as a sole agent of us. So we’re here to cooperate together for the Philippine market,” he said.
TQMP President Paul Vincent Go, on the other hand, talked about the possibility of expanding within the year to different product lines that include a glass used for low-cost housing.
Without divulging the amount of their investments for the planned expansion of offerings and acquisition deal, he noted that this new undertaking will materialize in a year or two if it pushes through.
“As of this time, it only produces flat glass,” he said of the manufacturing plant located in Pinagbuhatan, Pasig City, which operates at its full capacity of around 500 tons per day.
“In the future, we’re adding up new products so new facilities will be infused. So far, we’re undergoing the study already,” Go added.
Currently, 80 percent of the plant’s output is supplied domestically, and the remaining 20 percent is for export. The ratio will be applied also to upcoming product extension.
According to Go, they already received a lot of inquiries from abroad.
“There are many foreign customers who, upon hearing this transaction, went to us to inquire, [mostly] Asians,” he said. “So we have [been approached by potential clients from] Korea, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. [They’re our customers already] for the existing products.”
Pressed about their business prospect following the flat growth rate of AGPH from 2016 to 2017 due to limited production capacity, Takeda, on the other hand, remains positive for their outlook with the new ownership of their subsidiary.
“Hopefully, Paul [Go] can increase the business because now we export 20 percent,” he said. “But, if the domestic market is better than export, of course, we can supply much more to the domestic market. This is his vision.”
Go is confident of the glass trade in the country given the strong market demand due to a robust economy and the infrastructure projects of the government in line with President Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build” program.
“If there’s a bigger demand locally, we will just divert to domestic. So a lot of our new products will be incorporated in the developments in the Philippines,” he said. “We want to support the local industry aspect. That’s our main objective.”