omniture

Fuwei Films Reports Progress On 3rd Production Line and Trial Production Line

2007-06-20 16:11 1529

BEIJING, June 20 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Fuwei Films (Holdings) Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: FFHL) today reports on the progress of construction financed, in part, with the proceeds of the December 2006 IPO.

The completion of the external construction of the factory building to house the third company owned thick film production line is expected by the end of June 2007. This building will also house a Research & Development (R&D) trial production line.

Xiaoan He, CEO and Chairman of Fuwei Films noted, "We are pleased with the progress of the new production facility. We are also pleased to note that the Company plans to report its results of the second fiscal quarter in the coming month. Notification on reporting and conference call schedule is planned to be released during the first week of July.”

New Production Line

Mr. He noted "With completion of the buildings exterior, we will now focus on construction of the power supply and other requirements necessary for the equipment that will produce 23,000 metric tons per year of thick film products mainly for use in thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) electronic screens. The specialized manufacturing equipment for the third production line is being ordered from the manufacturer in Germany and is expected to arrive by the end of December 2007. Installation of equipment and the debugging process will take place in the first quarter of 2008 and production is expected to begin in April 2008.”

Currently, China’s demand for thick film (38 to 250μ) for use in electronic screens is approximately US$150 million annually. Industries manufacturing TFT-LCD screens currently rely on expensive imports, as PRC manufacturers do not at present possess such production capabilities. Upon production and commercial sales of these products, Fuwei desires to become the sole domestic supplier of such specialty film products for the electrical and electronics industries.

Research & Development Trial Production Line

It is planned that by the end of August, the new factory will satisfy the requirements for equipment installation for a trial production line. Installation of the equipment is expected to start in September. Debugging process is expected to commence from November and operation is expected to start by the end of December 2007.

Mr. He commented, “The trial production line will primarily be used by the R&D Center for developing new products and can be used to produce small quantities of the high value-added specialty film products. This line will also be used to test and debug new products similar to those of the existing two product lines. Once proven successful, production can be moved to the commercial lines. It is expected that this will allow Fuwei to minimize the time and cost of starting a new film on the high volume production lines without test.”

The Mitsubishi Company of Japan made the equipment for this line. While it has been in usage since 1985, Fuwei has imported new components such as dies and thickness gauges and made further improvements and upgrades.

About Fuwei Films

Fuwei Films conducts its business through its wholly owned subsidiary Shandong Fuwei Films Co., Ltd. (“Shandong Fuwei”). Shandong Fuwei develops, manufactures and distributes high quality plastic films using the biaxial oriented stretch technique, otherwise known as BOPET film (biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate). Fuwei’s BOPET film is widely used to package food, medicine, cosmetics, tobacco and alcohol, as well as in the imaging, electronics, and magnetic products industries. Fuwei has a diverse domestic and international customer base including DareGlobal, Jiangsu Qionghua Group, Klaser, Alcan, 3M, Tesa, Cips Itochi Plastics, Kurz, and P&G.

For more information about the Company, please visit the Company’s recently revised website at www.fuweiholdings.com or review the Company’s annual report and other documents for free at http://www.sec.gov .

This press release contains information that constitutes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results described by the forward-looking statements. Risk factors that could contribute to such differences include those matters more fully disclosed in the Company’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking information provided herein represents the Company’s estimates as of the date of the press release, and subsequent events and developments may cause the Company’s estimates to change. The Company specifically disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking information in the future. Therefore, this forward-looking information should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s estimates of its future financial performance as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

The forward-looking statements included in this press release are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions about our businesses and business environments. These statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are not a guarantee of future performance. Actual results of our operations may differ materially from information contained in the forward-looking statements as a result of risk factors some of which are include, among other things, competition in the BOPET film industry; growth of, and risks inherent in, the BOPET film industry in China; uncertainty as to future profitability and our ability to obtain adequate financing for our planned capital expenditure requirements; uncertainty as to our ability to continuously develop new BOPET film products and keep up with changes in BOPET film technology; risks associated with possible defects and errors in our products; uncertainty as to our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights; uncertainty as to our ability to attract and retain qualified executives and personnel; and uncertainty in acquiring raw materials on time and on acceptable terms, particularly in view of the volatility in the prices of petroleum products in recent years.

Source: Fuwei Films (Holdings) Co., Ltd.
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