No. 2 Plant to be Established for NGK Ceramics Suzhou

NGK INSULATORS, LTD. (President Taku Oshima; Headquarters: Nagoya, Japan; "NGK") today announced that it has decided to construct a No. 2 plant for its manufacturing subsidiary NGK Ceramics Suzhou Co., Ltd. to respond to growth in demand for gasoline particulate filters (GPFs) used in vehicles with gasoline engines to filter out particulate matter (PM). The plant is to start production in December 2019, increasing GPF production capacity in China approximately six-fold.

NGK Ceramics Suzhou was established in 2001 as a production base for ceramic products for automotive exhaust gas purification in China. It began production in 2003. The product lineup increased alongside growing demand and NGK Ceramics Suzhou now produces three products, including HONEYCERAM, with plans to start production of GPFs in April 2018. As China is expected to see further expansion in demand for GPFs and there is no space for expansion in the existing plant, NGK has decided to increase GPF production capacity by constructing a No. 2 plant.

The No. 2 plant will be constructed near the existing plant (around 2 km to the east). The plant is to start production in December 2019, and combined with the existing plant, will increase the production capacity for GPFs in China approximately six-fold. NGK plans to make capital expenditures of approximately ¥33.0 billion.

GPFs are ceramic filters for removing PM emitted from gasoline engines. They have been developed based on diesel particulate filter (DPF) technology. NGK Ceramics Polska Sp. z o. o. began mass producing GPFs in January 2016. China has been tightening its automobile exhaust gas regulations, and plans to adopt China VI exhaust gas regulations nationwide, which are equivalent to the Euro 6 emissions standards, by 2020. Under China VI regulations, vehicles with gasoline engines will be required to comply with PM emissions volume regulations, like vehicles with diesel engines, and automobiles will be required to have filters to remove PM.

NGK currently produces ceramics for automobile exhaust gas purification at 10 production sites in 8 countries around the world*. In April 2018, a new production site will start operations in Thailand, and with the addition of the No. 2 plant at NGK Ceramics Suzhou, the Company will have 12 production sites in 9 countries. NGK will continue to make investments for bolstering production capacity to meet expanding global demand for ceramics used in automobile exhaust purification, building an efficient and stable global production and supply system.