Corning Optical Communications (Corning) plans to build a new facility for producing fiber optic cable in Poland.

Per a report in Puls Biznesu, the new plant will be located in the town of Mszczonow, in the county of Zyrardow in the Mazowieckie region. The investment will amount to approximately US$93 million, and Corning expects to employ at least 240 people there, “including 85 with higher education.”

Corning, which owns more than a hundred plants and branches worldwide, established its first Polish plant in 2001 in Łódź. Production began in 2002, and in 2007 the plant was relocated to Stryków, where it opened an R&D department. Today, it has almost 3,000 employees in Poland. In 2017, Corning had more than 2,000 employees in Poland, and the next year it opened a second telecom equipment plant in Stryków. Corning now accounts for more than 82,200 sq m in two warehousing and production buildings.

Corning Inc. has signed up to be the first tenant in a new business park being built in Hickory, North Carolina, a $60 million investment in its Optical Communications division.

A story by David Boraks, WFAE, said that city and Catawba County officials report that the plant will be built on 27 acres at the Trivium Corporate Center, between Robinwood and Startown roads. Local officials had been referring to the plan as "Project Wave" during negotiations with Corning.

The announcement came after the Hickory City Council and Catawba County Commission approved a series of incentives that provide Corning the land, valued at $605,000, and granting up to $1.7 million in tax rebates over five years. Corning also was given an option to acquire another 4.4 acres.

The project was expected to create 110 new jobs, the report said. Corning has committed to creating 75 new jobs by Dec. 31, 2020, and the remainder by Dec. 31, 2023. The manufacturing capacity will be used to produce a range of optical fiber and cable.

"Corning is investing in tomorrow’s growth today, as the growing number of connected devices fuels demand for our optical fiber and cable innovations," Dr. Bernhard Deutsch, vice president and general manager of Corning Optical Fiber and Cable, said in a statement.

Corning has more than 4,000 employees in North Carolina, in both cable manufacturing and life sciences. It is also building a new headquarters for the cable business, off I-485 in northwest Charlotte. That operation is expected to relocate to Charlotte from Hickory next year and could eventually employ up to 650 people.

Corning Incorporated announced that the company has officially opened a new cable manufacturing facility in Newton, North Carolina, as part of the company’s expansion plans to meet growing worldwide demand for its optical fiber and cable.

A press release said that the facility, which will employ more than 200 people, is part of Corning’s previously announced plan to invest more than $250 million in its optical fiber, cable, and solutions manufacturing facilities. In North Carolina, Corning is expanding its fiber manufacturing facility near Concord and its cable facilities in Winston-Salem and Hickory, in addition to opening the Newton plant.

“Network operators around the world are challenged to meet exploding demand for high-speed connectivity and data storage,” said Clark S. Kinlin, executive vice president, Corning Optical Communications. “We are adding this cable capacity to help ensure reliable supply of the world’s highest performing optical cable in a growing market. This world-class facility was commissioned in record time, a feat that would not have been possible without our long-serving Catawba County employees, or the support of state and local leaders here in North Carolina.”