Optical Fibre-Cont

摘要

Japan's ability to offload surplus fibre on the export market has been hit hard by anti-dumping duties in China (see chart below). From a peak of 12m US dollars/month in February Chinese imports of optical fibre from Japan amounted to little more than 2m US dollars in July. In volume terms, Japan's fibre exports to all destinations fell from 2.4m fkm in Ql to 1.8m fkm in Q2. Although rising preform exports bridged some of this shortfall, this lost business made restructuring inevitable. Local Chinese newspaper reports suggesting that Fiberhome Telecommunications Technologies was close to signing a joint venture optical fibre agreement with Fujikura have been dismissed as "rumour". The report quoted an unnamed insider as saying that Fujikura had picked Fiberhome as its partner in China in order to avoid anti-dumping duties and that it wanted to make itself into one of the top 3 players in the Chinese market. Fiberhome had previously inked a deal with Alcatel that went sour in early-2003. Whether or not there is any substance to this rumour, it cannot be denied that the logical long-term strategy for any producer affected by anti-dumping duties is to either partner or invest further in China. Fujikura is already involved there through its joint venture with Walsin Lihwa. Meanwhile Furukawa-Shianfu is believed to be installing additional new furnaces.