Coatings specialist PPG Industries (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania / USA; www.ppg.com) has completed the sale of its stakes in the two 50:50 glass fibre joint ventures trading as PPG Fiber Glass (PFG) to its jv partner Nan Ya Plastics Corp (NPC, Taipei / Taiwan; www.npc.com.tw) – see Plasteurope.com of 04.10.2016. The sale for USD 170m to the subsidiary of Formosa Plastic Group (Taipei / Taiwan; www.fpc.com.tw) includes two plants at Chia Yi / Taiwan and Kunshan / China supplying electronic yarn fibres used in integrated electronic circuit boards and fibre glass reinforcements for automotive applications.

This deal and the earlier divestment of plants in Wigan / UK and Hoogezand / The Netherlands specialised in the manufacture of direct roving and chopped glass fibres leave PPG with five glass fibre production facilities, alongside a flat glass business in North America. Together these businesses accounted for only around 7% of the company’s 2015 sales of USD 15 bn (EUR 13.6 bn) in 2015.