Fuyao’s Moraine operation lost $41M in 2016

Fuyao Global, the parent company of Moraine’s Fuyao Glass America Inc. was profitable as a whole last year, even as its Moraine operation suffered losses.

In the global company’s annual report, recently released in English, Fuyao achieved a revenue of 16.6 billion renminbi (RMB), representing year-on-year growth of 22.45 percent, with a profit before income tax of 3,9 billion RMB.

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But Fuyao’s Moraine operation lost $41 million, the auto glass producer reported.

Fuyao said it plans to build out its Moraine complex so that it has an annual production capacity of 22 million square meters of automotive safety glass. The company invested $237 million into the plant in 2016, with an accumulated investment amounting to $654 million.

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“Currently, the construction of the capacity of approximately 12 million square meters of the automotive glass project in Moraine, Ohio, (in) the U.S. has been completed,” Fuyao said in the report.

Fuyao Global Chairman Cho Tak Wong bought the Moraine plant, once a General Motors SUV factory, for $15 million in May 2014.

In 2016, the Moraine operation achieved revenue $104,439,500.

“Fuyao Glass America Inc. is expected to step into a benign development track in 2017,” the report said.

“The successful operation of the U.S. Fuyao automotive glass plant and the additional investment in such plant can provide faster and more valuable services to North American customers and the largest market in the world,” the report also said.

In November 2016, Jeff Daochuan Liu, president of Fuyao Glass America, told the Dayton Daily News shortly after his appointment that the Moraine plant had lost about $90 million in two years — but he intended to turn that around.

Liu’s goal is to have the company break even in 2017 and reach profitability soon beyond that, he said at that time.

“It will be a really significant achievement, to break even next year,” Liu said last year.

A message seeking comment was sent to Fuyao Glass America.

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