Glass fibre and copper foil are critical components for the production of laminates. The establishment of the two plants will help advance the Group's efficiency from further vertical integration.

The Lianzhou Industrial Park occupies a site of 1,100 hectares and the current facilities have a staff of 390. The first phase of the copper foil plant has a designed capacity of 10,000 tons per year, or around 30% of the Group's total capacity. The glass fibre plant, which has become operational since August 2004, was designed to have an annual capacity of 36 million sq.m. in the first phase. The entire glass fibre facility will be built in three phases, which when fully operational within 2005 will have a capacity of 110 million sq.m., representing around 50% of the Group's total glass fibre capacity. The second phase expansion of the glass fibre plant is now under planning. Substantially all of the glass fibre and copper foil produced in Lianzhou are for internal use.

The Lianzhou Industrial Park is located in the northern part of Qingyuan in Guangdong province, along national expressway G107 connecting to Hunan province.

Mr. Paul Cheung Kwok Wing, Chairman, Kingboard Chemical Holdings Ltd. said at the opening ceremony: "After 20 years of rapid development, the Pearl River Delta area is increasing being faced with bottlenecks caused by rising costs and shortages of energy and labour. Kingboard has taken proactive steps to constantly enhance the competitiveness of its production base, including the setting up of paper laminate plant in Shaoguan, northwest Guangdong. We intend to fully utilize our cost advantage from our production facilities in the north to integrate further upstream and consolidate our competitive position."

About Kingboard Chemical
Kingboard Chemical Holdings Limited (SEHK: 148) is one of the world's largest manufacturers of laminates, operating more than 30 plants in China, vertically integrated with in-house capability for the production of copper foil, bleached kraft paper, glass yarn, glass fibre, formalin, hydrogen peroxide, epoxy resin and TBBA. The Group has been added to the MSCI World Index (Pacific ex Japan) and MSCI Hong Kong Index as a constituent since May 2004, and named for five consecutive years by Forbes Global as one of "The World's Best 200 Small Companies".

Issued by :
Kingboard Chemical Holdings Limited

Through :
t6.communications limited
Jenny Lee or Angus Ho
tel : 2511 8388 / fax : 2511 8238
email : enquiry-at-t6pr.com (use "@" to replace "-at-")
URL : http://www.t6pr.com