JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #78 - January/February 2013 - 11

glass fibre

Chongqing CPIC goes global
By acquiring Owens Corning’s Capivari production unit in
Brazil, CPIC Fiberglass is changing spheres. This investment
signals the company’s intent to become one of the sector’s
global players. Now it is up to CPIC to show that it can do as
well abroad as in China.

n May 2011, Chongqing Polycomp
(CPIC), one of China’s three largest
glass-fibre production bases, acquired a
100% holding in Brazilian glass fibre producer OCV Capivari Fibras de Vidro from
Owens Corning Group, the world’s largest
fibreglass company. The acquisition is the
first of its nature by a Chinese state-owned
company, and it enables CPIC to enter the

interview
Li Hongbin
General Manager
CPIC Fiberglass

JEC Composites Magazine:
You are already present on two continents.
Do you plan new openings and investments?

Wu Ming: CPIC is a globally recognized
glass-fibre brand. To better meet the
market demand, we will soon set up subsidiaries with enhanced logistics in Europe,
North America and Russia. We will also
create new warehouses in China to make
CPIC products closer to our customers.

Brazilian and South American markets.
The purchase follows Owens Corning’s
announcement to sell the facility in September 2010. When it acquired Saint-Gobain’s reinforcements and technical fabrics
businesses in 2007, Owens Corning anticipated that it might be required to sell the
Capivari facility, one of more than 30 in its
global network. Capivari Fibras de Vidro’s
main business is the production and sale of
glass-fibre products, as an Owens Corning group model plant. It has a complete

Our company will also continue its global
production set-up in the Middle East.
JCM: The group provides textile yarns and
a wide range of reinforcement materials
such as rovings, mats (emulsion-powder
binder), woven rovings, multi-axial fabrics,
chopped strands, long fibre for thermoplastics and other products. Do you plan to
expand your offer?

W. M. : CPIC will follow the market
requirements and will never stop its
research and development on new glassfibre products. Whether it’s for the present
markets, frontier markets or specialty markets, CPIC will do its best as long as there is
a customer need.
We now have four glass compositions,
namely traditional E glass, corrosion-resistant ECR glass, general boron-free ECT
glass and high-performance TM glass,
which cover the needs of different sectors

CPIC fiberglass facility in Brazil

and applications. CPIC will continue to
develop even higher performance glass
fibre and optimize the fibre form and
sizing.
JCM: What is the current distribution of
your main markets?

W. M. : Due to macro-environmental
changes and trade protectionism, CPIC’s
domestic sales have exceeded overseas
sales since April 2009. The recent domestic-to-overseas sales ratio is 6:4.
JCM: What is the situation of the Chinese
composite market?

W. M. : The global economy is not doing
well, and China’s economy is no exception. The composite industry’s growth has
slowed down. If you break down the sector,
electronics do better than reinforcements,
thermoplastics do better than thermosets
and thermosets do better than wind energy.

No78 January - February 2013 /

jec composites magazine 11

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #78 - January/February 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #78 - January/February 2013