New Zealand firm to build optical network connector factory

It might sound like selling bok choy to Beijing, but by the middle of next year, a New Zealand firm aims to be manufacturing multi-fibre push on (MPO) network connectors and gunning for 10 percent of the Chinese market by 2017.

Hope King, founded by New Zealand resident Wen Zhao, has bought a 1,000 square metre factory in Auckland and said it will be installing a production line there towards the end of the year.

Hope King said it will target the providers datacentres and large fibre rollout projects in New Zealand and Australia before attacking the China market.

General manager Howard Chen said the performance of core connector devices is key to the optical communications industry. MPO connectors offer low cost, low power consumption, and high-density devices. Since the release of the latest ethernet standard in 2010, MPO to MPO pre-connection is preferred for datacentre use, he said.

Citing figures from China-based CCID Consulting, Chen said the global fibre connector market is poised to grow from production of 1.8 billion sets this year to 3.4 billion in 2019.

Hope King said it chose to set up shop in New Zealand because of its efficient, clean, and transparent government.

By 2017, Chen said, total investment will reach a projected NZ$50 million. By then, it projects production of 22 million sets, sales of NZ$19 million, and a profit of NZ$9 million.