The investment will be at Owens Corning’s Chanzhou and Doudian sites in China and at its Taloja site in India.
About one-third more knitting capacity will be added to the three plants’ existing fabrics operations, to supply technical fabrics for the wind energy market in Asia, which includes the fast-growing China market. The expansion is already underway and will be completed during the third quarter this year. It includes knitting equipment to produce both biaxial and multiaxial fabrics.
“During the past 20 years, Owens Corning has been leading the way with roving and fabrics preferred by the world’s largest wind blade manufacturers,” says Sunil Saxena, general manager and managing director for OCV™ Technical Fabrics, Asia Pacific region. “The expansions of fabric capacity in China and India will enable us to supply more of our customers’ growing requirements locally.”
According to the Global Wind Energy Council (QWEC), China will be the biggest growth market for wind power generating capacity this year, ahead of the USA.
Owens Corning, headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, USA, is a global producer of glass fibre reinforcements and engineered materials for composite systems and building materials.