American Fiber Optic Group plans U.S. fiber preform facility

American Fiber Optics Group (AFOG), a wholly owned subsidiary of Capstone Technologies, says it plans to construction an optical fiber preform manufacturing facility “in a strategic location that has existing unused manufacturing facilities, such as the Detroit, Michigan, area or another suitable location,” in the words of a press release. The company expects to complete the facility by the end of next year.

AFOG says the facility will be built in stages, with the first stage, capable of creating preforms to support a total of 10 million kilometers of fiber, coming online at the end of the first year. That capacity will double by the end of the second year of construction. The company expects the plant to generate gross sales revenues of more than $80,000,000 per year when at full capacity and employ more than 100 people.

But AFOG’s plans don’t end there. After the initial two-year period, AFOG says it will expand operations to include not only preform creation but the drawing and selling of fiber as well. AFOG says it is investigating partnership opportunities to help achieve and exceed these goals.

The company says that placing the facility in the U.S. “strategic location” will provide a variety of competitive advantages over facilities in Japan in China. These include the availability of skilled workers left behind by other industries, lower tax restrictions, and (again in the words of the press release) “a USA jobs oriented atmosphere in the new U.S. Government administration in 2017.”

Source: http://www.lightwaveonline.com/