Contact :
Asahi Glass Co., Ltd.
Yoshiyasu Okuda
DIRECTOR,
Overseas Business Div.
Fabricated Glass General Div.
Phone: +81-3-3218-5385

Tokyo, JAPAN - Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. today announced that it had incorporated AP Technoglass de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. ("APDM"; Headquarters in El Salto, Jalisco, Mexico; President; Mr. Kazuhiko Hirata) as a wholly owned subsidiary to be engaged in the production and sales of automotive glass in Mexico.

Mexican economy has recovered from Peso crisis thanks to NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) started in 1994 and steadily grown to date. Especially, the winning industry is the automotive sector, which shows more than 10% growth in the production, due to the strong exports. The forecast for 1998 vehicle outputs exceeds 1.5 million cars. Asahi Glass has studied the feasibility of automotive glass plant in Mexico, which becomes a strategically important supply platform for enlarged North American market. Finally, it decided to enter the country on the basis of 100% ownership with 40 million US Dollar investment.

With APDM in addition, Asahi Glass now has three automotive glass plants in North America; the first in Ohio, the second in Kentucky and the third in Jalisco.

APDM has already started the construction of the plant in last April. The trial production will start in February, 1999 and the commercial one is scheduled in the third quarter of 1999. APDM initially serves to Nissan, Honda and GM and plans to gradually expand its business basis to other customers. Asahi group continues to grow its presence in the North American market through the incorporation of APDM.

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