The story of Fuyao
In one sense, it’s an unlikely story. In another sense, it’s something many in the Dayton community have pursued for years.
In what may be the largest investment in the Midwest by a Chinese auto supplier, Fuyao Glass publicly committed on January 10 to bring a manufacturing operation to a former General Motors plant in Moraine next year.
Fuyao plans to hire 800 workers, a far cry from the approximately 4,000 or more who worked at the plant when it was operated by Frigidaire or GM. But GM left the plant in 2008 and a California-based industrial developer partnered with an Ohio company to buy the property in 2011. Since then, the site has attracted several small companies, but it has remained largely empty.
Fuyao is expected to close on its purchase of 1.4 million square feet of the plant at Kettering Boulevard and Ohio 741 this spring. After that, operations may begin in mid-2015, with the company serving major automakers in the U.S., including Hyundai, GM and others.
-- Thomas Gnau, staff writer --