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Corning Announces Partial Reopening of its Concord, N.C., Optical Fiber Manufacturing Facility

2007-04-29 13:55 773

Decision Based on Continued Growth of the Optical Fiber Market and Increased Demand for Corning Semiconductor Materials Products

CORNING, N.Y., April 29 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) on April 25 announced plans to reopen a portion of its Concord, N.C., optical fiber manufacturing facility. As previously stated, the company expects it will take approximately six to nine months to restart fiber manufacturing. Production will be paced to meet market demand.

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"The optical fiber market has witnessed volume growth of greater than 15 percent in each of the last two years," said Eric S. Musser, vice president and general manager of Corning Optical Fiber. "Over 80 percent of worldwide fiber demand now comes from the access and metro segments, and we expect to see continued market growth. The partial start-up of our Concord facility will ensure that we have adequate capacity to capture this expanding market opportunity."

Another factor in the decision to partially reopen Concord is the growth in demand for Corning semiconductor materials products. In addition to optical fiber, Corning also manufactures high-purity fused silica for semiconductor lithography applications at its Wilmington, N.C., facility. Corning's semiconductor business is growing at double-digit rates, resulting in the need for increased specialty glass capacity in Wilmington. This demand has displaced some of Wilmington's fiber making capacity.

"The manufacturing process at the Wilmington facility produces innovative specialty glass for challenging microlithography applications. The lithographic industry is expected to show continued growth with higher semiconductor content in consumer electronics," said James R. Steiner, senior vice president and general manager of Corning Specialty Materials.

About Corning Incorporated

Corning Incorporated ( http://www.corning.com ) is the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics. Drawing on more than 150 years of materials science and process engineering knowledge, Corning creates and makes keystone components that enable high-technology systems for consumer electronics, mobile emissions control, telecommunications and life sciences. Our products include glass substrates for LCD televisions, computer monitors and laptops; ceramic substrates and filters for mobile emission control systems; optical fiber, cable, hardware & equipment for telecommunications networks; optical biosensors for drug discovery; and other advanced optics and specialty glass solutions for a number of industries including semiconductor, aerospace, defense, astronomy and metrology.

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a variety of business risks and other uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include the possibility of changes in global economic and political conditions; currency fluctuations; product demand and industry capacity; competition; manufacturing efficiencies; cost reductions; availability of critical components and materials; new product commercialization; changes in the mix of sales between premium and non-premium products; new plant start-up costs; possible disruption in commercial activities due to terrorist activity, armed conflict, political instability or major health concerns; adequacy of insurance; equity company activities; acquisition and divestiture activities; the level of excess or obsolete inventory; the rate of technology change; the ability to enforce patents; product and components performance issues; stock price fluctuations; and adverse litigation or regulatory developments. Additional risk factors are identified in Corning's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the day that they are made, and Corning undertakes no obligation to update them in light of new information or future events.

Source: Corning Incorporated
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