Business

Saturday November 7, 2009

Fibon to set up plants in Australia and Britain

By ZAZALI MUSA


KLUANG: Electrical insulator manufacturer Fibon Bhd will set up a fabrication plant in Sydney, Australia by year-end and another one in Staffordshire, England in the first quarter of 2010, said managing director Eddie Pang Fok Seng.

The Sydney plant will cater to customers in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania while the one in Staffordshire will serve the European market, according to Pang.

“We want to better serve our existing and potential clients and also be more efficient by having facilities closer to them,” he said in an interview with StarBiz on Wednesday.

Fibon’s facility in Kluang, Johor will remain the company’s research and development (R&D) centre as well as the main manufacturing plant.

Fibon manufactures electrical insulators used in switchgears that power large buildings such as airports. It also produces the raw materials used in the making of its high-performance insulators.

Pang said growth prospects for the company looked promising due to increasing demand for insulators with higher performance and safety standards, noting that more than 90% of the electrical insulators used in the world were made from conventional materials.

He added that Fibon had been able to sell its products at much higher prices than conventional insulators due to rising demand for such products.

Fibon was listed on the Bursa Malaysia Mesdaq market on Dec 18, 2008 but will be transferred to the main market on Monday. The company has more than 100 clients in 15 countries at present, and 80% of its revenue comes from overseas markets, especially Singapore, which contributes 40%.

According to Pang, Fibon has been named, in an independent research report, as one of three “key” companies in the world which produce high-level insulation products.

“We are not only producing high-level insulators but have also formulated our own raw materials; hence we are able to offer high-amperage insulators,” he said, adding that the company’s range of products catered mainly to the hi-tech niche market.

Fibon’s electrical insulators are used in buildings such as the KL International Airport, Bangkok’s Suwarnabhumi International Airport and Singapore’s Changi Airport.

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