Corning to Increase Fiber Manufacturing Capacity by 50% with $750 Million Investment

Corning Inc., Advanced Materialsany%> (Corning, NY) board of directors has approved a plan to invest $750 million in capital expenditures to expand and enhance the company's optical fiber manufacturing capabilities. The company expects the expansions to ultimately increase overall capacity by more than 50%.

The multi-year plan includes equipment enhancements and/or plant expansions at three different sites of its global manufacturing network, including the Wilmington and Concord plants located in North Carolina, and its Noble Park plant in Victoria, Australia. This is the first major plant expansion at Concord, the company's newest fiber- making facility, which began production in 1999. The additional capacity being announced today will more than double that plant's fiber production capability.

In recent years, Corning announced expansions at its Wilmington facility and in 1996 announced construction of the Concord plant. Corning has also recently acquired from BICC ownership of optical-fiber manufacturing operations in Deeside, Wales and Noble Park in Victoria Australia. Both the Deeside and Noble Park operations had previously been 50-50 equity investments with BICC.

Edited by Kristin Keiser