US$200m optical cable factory planned

Tinhhoa Advanced Technology Corp will invest US$200 million to set up an optical cable factory at Saigon Hi-Tech Park in HCM City.
Tinhhoa president Vu Luong said on May 3 that the planned facility financed by local investors would cover five hectares in the park, into which Intel Corp., the world’s largest chipmaker, has been licensed to build a US$300 million chip assembly and testing facility.
Work on the optic cable project will start in August with the factory to be up and running by 2008.
In the first US$86 million phase, the factory will make one million kmf of optical cables in the first year. The company will increase the plant’s capacity by one million kmf each year in the following five years.
Luong said that the high-tech products would meet the demand of the country’s growing information and communication technology sector. The company also plans to export the cables. “We want to make a big advance in the hi-tech sector, as well as be a leading optical cable maker in Vietnam,” Luong said.
Israel’s Clean Systems Technology Inc. will supply equipment and technology for the factory and advice Tinhhoa.
Optical cables are now necessary in information technology, optics and electronics and other important sectors, such as communication, military, oil and gas, physics and medicine.
Optical cables have been replacing bronze cable networks because they permit a high transmission speed and have a big capacity and good quality.
Luong said world demand for optical cables was 250 million kmf in 2004, or 10 times more than in 1996.
Tinhhoa, which is headquartered at Quang Trung Software City in HCM City’s District 12 since 2000, specialises in developing solutions for communication and the internet, including WiFi and Wireless. It also processes embedded software for local and foreign partners.

 

Category: ResourceAsia