Saint-Gobain and Corning Incorporated Announce Joint Venture to Produce Lightweight Glazing for the Auto Market

PARIS -- Saint-Gobain Sekurit and Corning Incorporated have signed an agreement to establish an exclusive joint venture, equally owned by Saint-Gobain and Corning, to develop, manufacture and sell lightweight automotive glazing solutions. The venture is expected to build manufacturing facilities to meet worldwide automotive market demand.

This new venture will take advantage of the unique synergies available from its parent companies to bring revolutionary innovations to the automotive market. Laminated windows made with ultra-thin Corning® Gorilla® Glass for Automotive and Sekurit's automotive glass and window technologies offer a significantly improved combination of lightness, toughness and optical quality over traditional solutions.

These thin, lightweight automotive glazing solutions can be used for all laminated windows in an automobile and will significantly reduce vehicle weight which will improve fuel efficiency, environmental impact and vehicle handling. The joint venture's advantaged glazing solutions will further enable auto makers to develop the "car of the future," including improved head up display images.

"By combining the know-how of Saint-Gobain, a world leader in developing and processing automotive glass, with Corning's innovative Corning® Gorilla® Glass technology, the joint venture will provide the opportunity to create a major innovation in one of Saint-Gobain's historical businesses," said Houchan Shoeibi, president of Saint-Gobain Sekurit.

"We are excited to collaborate with a world leader in automotive glass, Saint-Gobain, to accelerate adoption of thin, lightweight, durable and optically advantaged auto glazing," Martin J. Curran, executive vice president and innovation officer, said. "Today's announcement further demonstrates Corning's ability to leverage its glass fusion manufacturing expertise and auto industry experience to extend Gorilla Glass into the automotive glass market."

This agreement is subject to the approval of the relevant competition authorities. For further information, visit:
http://www.corning.com
http://www.plastics.saint-gobain.com