By the numbers
2,000: Number of employees Fuyao Glass America expects by year-end.
241,338: Square feet company will add in new lease.
150: Daily trucks expected to deliver glass from the plant when fully operational.
Fuyao Glass America is expanding its plant by 241,000 square feet to add space for logistics and warehouse operations, company officials said Tuesday.
The glass manufacturer signed a 15-year agreement to lease the new space in a part of its plant still owned by Industrial Realty Group.
“We must have the space to fulfill customer orders,” John Gauthier, president of Fuyao Glass America, said in a statement. “This additional space gives us the ability to manage our inventories better to meet the customer demands.”
Fuyao makes automotive, safety and industrial glass in what it says is the world’s largest single-site auto glass production facility. The company serves original equipment manufacturing customers, mostly North American automakers, and after-market customers.
The company now ships glass out of the plant with about 20 trucks a day. Once production hits full capacity, the company said 150 trucks a day will transport glass from the plant.
Dave Hicks, Moraine city manager, said he expects employment at the plant to only grow. Today, the plant has some 1,600 employees.
“I may be overly optimistic, but they continue to be pretty aggressive in their plans and thoughts,” Hicks said. “I think they will be limited (in employment) only by the market.”
Gauthier and Dave Burrows, Fuyao vice president, operations, reiterated Tuesday what company leaders have said in the past, that Fuyao Glass America expects to have about 2,000 employees in Moraine by year’s end and perhaps 2,500 after that.
“This is just another example of Fuyao’s commitment to Moraine,” said Mike Davis, Moraine development director. “We continue to work closely with Fuyao on this major project in our city. We have been with them since the beginning and will continue to support them.”
The expansion will take place over three phases. The company expects to be in the space in 90 days.
On its web site, IRG lists 941,200 square feet still available at the Moraine plant.
“We are very excited to lease this additional space to Fuyao,” Dean Miller, vice president of IRG, said in Fuyao’s statement. “We have now sold or leased over 2 million square feet of buildings and 167 acres of land in Moraine. This lease and our partnership with Fuyao helps us continue to fulfill our vision of an industrial park in Moraine.”
In May 2014, Fuyao global Chairman Cho Tak Wong paid $15 million for 1.4 million square feet of the plant owned by Industrial Realty Group, overseen by California-based investor Stu Lichter. The plant once housed a General Motors SUV assembly operation, which the automaker closed in 2008.
The company now claims 1.5 million square feet of the Moraine plant and has invested more than $400 million into its Moraine facility and $700 million total in United States operations, including a glass supply plant in Mount Zion, Ill.
This is the first section of the plant the company has leased, Davis said.
“Logistically Fuyao is perfectly positioned,” Jeff Hoagland, president and chief executive of the Dayton Development Coalition, said in Fuyao’s release. “This project showcases how well this region is positioned.”
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