OFS and Jiangsu Hengtong Photoelectric Agree to Establish a Joint Venture to Manufacture Optical Fiber Preforms

OFS Fitel, LLC (Head office: Atlanta, GA, USA, CEO and Chairman: Timothy Murray), a U.S. subsidiary of Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., and Jiangsu Hengtong Photoelectric Stock Co., Ltd. (Head office: Wujiang, Jiangsu, China, Chairman: Cui Gen Liang; hereinafter "Hengtong") agreed today to establish a joint venture that will manufacture optical fiber preforms in China. The joint venture will become the first optical fiber preform production base of the Furukawa Electric Group in China, which is the world’s largest optical fiber market.

The establishment of the joint venture is part of the global growth of transmission infrastructure included in the medium-term management plan "New Frontier 2012" announced on April 8, 2010. The Group will take advantage of global demand for infrastructure, especially in emerging economies such as the BRICs and ASEAN countries, and will aggressively develop operations.

Background and purpose of the joint venture

The optical fiber business is the core business of Furukawa Electric in the field of information and telecommunications, and expanding overseas sales in the business is a major policy of the Company. Furukawa Electric anticipates that demand for optical fibers will expand especially in China, the world’s largest market of optical fibers, as information infrastructure develops there. Consequently, the Furukawa Electric Group, which seeks to establish an optical fiber perform production base in China, and Hengtong, which aims to expand its optical fiber business by introducing the preform manufacturing technology of the Group, successfully concluded negotiations to establish a new company.

Profile of the Joint Venture

1. Business name    JIANGSU OFS HENGTONG OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. (plan)
2. Head office    Wujiang, Jiangsu, China (plan)
3. Business    Manufacture and sale of optical fiber preforms
4. Investment ratio    OFS : Hengtong = 51 : 49
5. Capital    30 million US dollars

Brief Profile of OFS

OFS is a world-leading designer, manufacturer and provider of optical fiber, optical fiber cable, FTTX, optical connectivity and specialty photonics products. The manufacturing and research divisions work together to provide innovative products and solutions that traverse many different applications as they link people and machines worldwide. Between continents, between cities, around neighborhoods, and into homes and businesses of digital consumers we provide the right optical fiber, optical cable and components for efficient, cost-effective transmission. OFS’s corporate lineage dates back to 1876 and includes technology powerhouses such as AT&T (NYSE: T) and Lucent Technologies (now Alcatel-Lucent, NYSE: ALU). Today, OFS is wholly owned by Furukawa Electric, a multi-billion dollar global leader in optical communications.

For further details, please visit OFS’s web site at

Brief Profile of Hengtong

Hengtong Group is a major cable manufacturer based in China that manufactures and sells telecommunications cable and equipment and power cables. Hengtong is the core business of Hengtong Group in the production and sale of fiber-optic cables.

For more information, please visit Hengtong Group’s website at