Kibing – China’s top investment in Sabah
Published on: Thursday, April 25, 2024
(Left to right) Kibing Consultant advisor Elin Empau, PR Officer Levis Zhou Wen and PR Manager Fred Nee and the silica sand plant and office in Sikuati (below).
SIKUATI: Sabah’s silica sand needed for the manufacturing of photovoltaic panels, float glass, energy saving glass, solar glass, electronic glass and medical glass, was what attracted Kibing Group of China to set up a RM2 billion silica sand processing and solar panel manufacturing project here and in Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP).
The companies under the Kibing Group (M) Sdn Bhd in Sabah are: SBH Kibing Silicon Materials (M) Sdn Bhd and SBH Kibing Solar New Materials (M) Sdn Bhd, with 1,800 jobs for the solar panel plant in KKIP and another 300 jobs at the silica sand processing plant in Sikuati.
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The company’s 52.77-hectare solar panel manufacturing plant is at Phase 2, Industrial Zone 7 of KKIP.
CEO of Allyssa Certification Dr Raymond Alfred, Certified Lead Auditor for Integrated Quality, Environmental, Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems, who joined the inspection tour with the media recently said:
“Current employment status shows is about 1,808, and 1,627 or 90 per cent are Sabahans. Some 56 Sabahans are working in management, 300 Sabahans are
working as professionals and technicians, and 1,271 Sabahans are working in operations.
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The Kibing Group was founded in 1988 with the registered address located at Liling City of Hunan Province in China and was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2011, with its business address at Shenzhen City of Guangdong Province in China with 28.6 billion RMB of total assets.”
“Kibing Group is one of the largest glass manufacturers and overall glass solution providers in China with 15,000 employees around the world.
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“About 1,500 staff or 10 per cent of our employees are experts in research and development (R&D). We have three R&D centres in Asia and our R&D investments comprises 4.5 per cent of our annual revenue,” said PR officer Levis Zhou Wen.
The China company is one of many Chinese outward direct investments in the Asia-Pacific region surged 37 per cent to nearly US$20 billion in 2023.
That outflow shows how Chinese companies seeking growth abroad are altering financial dynamics from Asia to the West to Latin America as these investment ambitions are only just beginning to remake the global trade order.
Presently, 17.1 per cent of Malaysia’s total trade is with China.
Malaysia generated RM192.2 billion in revenue in 2023 from the exports of goods to China and imported RM258.6 billion, mostly in the form of machinery, equipment and chemical products.
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