Helm AG Selects Chinese Glass Fibre Manufacturer to Distribute in EU

Jushi Group is a listed company and China's premier maker of textile glass. The Group's production capacity is over 200,000 t per year and it is planned to increase total annual output from the three plants to 500,000 t by 2010. To set that in context, processing requirements on the German market are currently 170,000 t of textile glass each year.

Jushi Group exports about 60% of its glass fibre production. Until now the USA have imported more than Europe. Jushi sees Europe as a market with strategic importance for the future. An on-going export trade is vital in view of the projected expansion of capacity, for which first steps have already been taken.

The products cover the entire range of textile glass reinforcements for plastics, both thermosets and thermoplastics. The range includes both assembled and direct rovings varying from 300 to 9600 tex and in a number of different filament thicknesses. They can be used in all classic production processes such as spray-up, SMC, pultrusion, winding, casting, GMT, LFT and weaving.

For the reinforcement of technical plastics and polypropylene Jushi supplies chopped strands for polymers, suitable for PA, PBT, PET, PP, ABS and POM. The chopped strands can also be treated with special sizings for the BMC and friction lining industries as well as for use in wet-laid non-woven applications.

To complement this range, Jushi supplies a wide selection of chopped strand mats, fabrics and composite mats, available in a variety of weights and widths.

Jushi Group operates at several plants, with the Group also possessing ISO 9001:2000 certification and a number of products have been registered with Lloyds or Det Norske Veritas.

HELM's European organization will be dealing with marketing for Jushi. Efforts will focus mainly on the German market, since this is the largest single market in Europe. Specialists at Hamburg head office have the necessary technical knowledge and are available for customer queries.

HELM AG and Jushi Group plan to steadily expand the European trade in the various types of glass fibres.