(Yicai Global) Feb. 9 -- China Jushi, the world's largest fiberglass manufacturer, is terminating its earlier plan of expanding its production capacity in India due to the Covid-19 pandemic and instead focusing on a new project in Egypt.

Jushi will build a factory in Egypt with an annual output of 120,000 tons of fiberglass, the Zhejiang province-based company said in a statement yesterday. Meanwhile, it is scrapping its earlier plan of establishing a USD246 million plant to make 100,000 tons of fiberglass per year in India's Pune.

The original goal was to set up a facility in India within two years after the plan was first announced in August 2017 to meet local demand and to avoid trade frictions. The project was supposed to bring USD108 million in annual revenue to Jushi and USD26.5 million in profit on average.

The company still needs to terminate its land lease agreement with the local government in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, it said yesterday. Moreover, it must cancel its engineering agreement with a partner. Construction has not practically begun yet so the losses should be relatively acceptable. Going forward, Jushi will continue exporting fiberglass from China and Egypt to India.

Jushi currently makes 200,000 tons of fiberglass in Egypt each year. Last August, the company said it will spend USD335 million to set up another factory in the North African country to produce 120,000 tons of fiberglass per year. The plant should be ready within 18 months, it said then.

Jushi's stock price [SHA:600176] climbed 1 percent to CNY17.02 (USD2.70).

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi