The 16,500-square-meter plant has room for future expansion to manufacture products such as silver pastes, surface technology products, multilayer materials, electronic glass, and precious metal powders. The Suzhou facility also houses an applications laboratory to support regional development as well as application technology engineers to assist customers in their product development efforts.

According to Jeffrey Edel, the EMS general manager for advanced materials, Asia is now the largest source of solar cells in the world, with three of the top five producers located in the region. Edel added that a number of companies are expanding production into Asia, and EMS has expanded its production and applied technology capabilities in Suzhou to serve the needs of these customers.

Ferro Electronic Material Systems,has locations in The USA, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany, Japan, and Singapore as well as Suzhou. Its products include surface finishing materials for LCD, hard disk and ophthalmic polishing; CMP slurries for semiconductors and advanced integrated circuits; metal pastes and powders for solar energy applications, advanced packaging and thick film conductors; and dielectrics used in multilayer ceramic capacitors.