The Stratford facility will establish a secure Canadian source of float glass with capacity capable of meeting the demands of the Canadian market. Roughly 70% of the float glass capacity and 80% of the energy saving glass capacity manufactured in Stratford will be used to meet market demand in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime Provinces, eliminating the current 100% reliance on glass importation for Canadian markets.
Xinyi is exploring logistics alternatives, such as intermodal trains, to transport glass to the prairie provinces. These provinces are also currently 100% reliant on imported glass. The remaining glass volume will be exported to the USA and/or Europe.

Xinyi Glass Holdings Limited (Xinyi Glass) has been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 2005. Being a listed company, Xinyi Glass follows all the required regulations for the release of information to the public. Its financial reports are audited by the accredited accounting firm, PWC (PricewaterhouseCoopers). The operational and financial aspects are set out in the latest annual report, which can be accessible by the website link: https://www.xinyiglass.com/en/financialreports/list.aspx

320 skilled jobs will be created upon initial and trial production operation in 2023, including up to 30 overseas float glass experts from Europe, Asia and USA.
Xinyi plans to start operation of the new advanced vacuum coating line for production of energy-saving glass products, once full production in-house float glass stock sheet is produced (in 2024). It is estimated that the total number of jobs will increase to 380 jobs within three years of full production.

English will be the form of communication for Xinyi Canada, including offers of employment, training, corporate policies, operating manuals, record keeping and recording. Mandarin is not a requirement for any of the local jobs.

Raw materials will mainly be delivered to site by rail. CN has been consulted and can provide rail services to support Xinyi’s operational requirements without having to increase the number of trains, but rather, by adding cars to existing trains.
Xinyi will invest and build 3 on-site rail spur lines to allow the majority of raw materials to be delivered to minimize the use of trucks for delivery of raw products.
Weekly delivery by CN Rail of 100 rail cars for raw material supplies are expected to be accommodated by adding cars to the existing trains that travel to Stratford 2 to 3 times per week between Monday and Friday.

Employee Traffic:
Employee traffic will be 170 employees (AM Peak Hour) entering the Xinyi Site (120 regular schedule staff and 50 shift-schedule staff) plus 50 shift-schedule staff exiting for home.
PM Peak Hour = 120 regular-schedule staff exiting for home.

Truck Traffic:
Total daily Truck Trip Generation = 50 trips in and 50 trips out per day.
Maximum truck trips = 8 per hour (1 truck every 7.5 minutes in the Peak Hour).

Both Highway 7 and Line 29 have significant reserve road capacity, which provides an acceptable Level of Service (LOS) to accommodate the traffic generated by Xinyi, the other annexed lands and growth in traffic. Highway 7 is a Provincial Highway that is designed to accommodate the movement of goods, including trucks.

While the roads capacities are adequate, the impact analysis also considered the LOS for the traffic operations at the Highway 7 / Line 29 intersection and at the site entrances. Various road improvements were identified (e.g., turning lanes, traffic signals) as mitigation to maintain acceptable traffic operations to beyond 2034 at these locations, assuming full development of the Xinyi lands, the annexed lands and the remaining Wright Industrial Park. Therefore, the proposed road improvement works will address the overall potential traffic impacts that have been identified in our analysis. Phase 1 of the Xinyi development is only a small part of the overall traffic to be generated, with the required road improvement works providing significant reserve capacity to beyond 2034.

The Ministry of Transportation Ontario is the approval authority for the traffic study and they required the Traffic Impact Study, prepared by RJ Burnside, to include traffic contribution assessment to a horizon year of 2034 including traffic generated from the Wright Business Park, the other City annexed lands and the general growth in traffic volumes. Xinyi has provided the estimated the future traffic contribution from the Xinyi plant alone.

The current traffic upgrade plan will be able to handle all anticipated traffic growth not only for Xinyi facility (Phase 1 & Phase 2), but also for other annexed lands (Parcel B, C, & D) and future development of Wright Industrial Park. The Traffic Report indicates that the road network will be able to handle Weekday AM Peak Hour (cars & trucks) for 1,435 vehicles, subject to the road improvements set out above.

Once operational, Xinyi’s facility will be generating approximately 230 trips during AM peak hour including cars and trucks, which is only 16% of 1,435 vehicles from all sources.

Please note that there are various travel routes for employees and the trucking of glass and, therefore, the forecasted 1435 vehicles (total 2-way) will be dispersed along various routes (e.g. Highway 7 south, Stratford by-pass road, Highway 8, etc.), thereby reducing the traffic volume increases in any one route to a fraction of the overall increase.

Xinyi is by law committed to meeting all environmental regulations including Section 9 of the Ontario Environmental Protection Act and Ontario Local Air Quality Regulation (O.Reg.419). Xinyi has completed work to predict the main air emissions from the facility. These studies have included preliminary dispersion modelling, which are predicting that the facility will be able to meet all Point Impingement limits, defined by the MECP’s O.Reg.419. The MECP regulates contaminants in air to protect communities who live close to these sources. As per the MECP’s Guideline A12, the regulation aims to limit substances released into the air that can affect human health and environment, and requires industries to operate responsibly under a set of rules that are publicly transparent.
As such, Xinyi is working directly with the MECP through several and on-going meetings. Next steps will involve preparing additional emission summary and dispersion modelling reports to support their approval registration. These reports will be completed following requirements of O.Reg.419 and will be subject to MECP audit, and continuous monitoring and reporting throughout the operation of the facility.

The stack is part of the Xinyi’s air quality management engineering system, specially designed to enhance the upward movement of the cleaned air stream to the upper atmosphere for effective dispersion to ensure compliance with the stringent Air Quality Stranded as stipulated by MECP. By adopting advanced combustion control technology, low levels of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide are produced.
The glass facility is equipped with an advanced air quality management system for effectively cleaning the combustion air stream.
A scrubbing system is adopted for removal of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide from the combustion air stream.
The clean air stream will be passed to a high efficiency fabric filter system for further removal of particulate matters.
The cleaned air stream is then directed to the stack with special engineering features to achieve effective upward dispersion into the atmosphere.
The cleaned air stream emitted from the stack is predominately steam.

A shorter stack can still comply with the Air Quality Standards and will cost less to build. However, the engineering designed stack is an integral part of the advanced air emission management system, based on technical studies. Xinyi considers it wise to adopt a prudent approach and plan well ahead by incorporating sufficient technical capability available to comply with even the more stringent Air Quality standards that may be introduced in the years to come. It will be more costly and difficult to retrofit any air quality management system with a shorter stack.
It is anticipated that the MECP may introduce more stringent air emission requirements in the future. It is prudent for Xinyi to have sufficient spare capability available should that be needed for future use, and the current stack height at 100m is appropriate to achieve even higher standards of emissions regulations should they be imposed.

Water is used primarily for cooling and process control for operation of the glass furnace. Xinyi does not use antifreeze as cooling agents to avoid negative environmental impacts. Instead water cooling is adopted. Cooling water is re-circulated and re-used after conditioning within an enclosed system. To conserve water usage, cooling water is released for discharge after many cycles of re-circulation and re-use. The water discharged has mineral content similar to that of incoming water supply, except at higher concentrations. Depending on the mineral content of water supply at Stratford, water usage may be reduced further (below 2,500 cu.m./day) if concentration of mineral content is low. The quality of cooling water discharge is well within acceptable level for discharge to the Stratford wastewater treatment plant. The water usage of Xinyi’s facility will increase Stratford’s water usage by 7.8%, increasing Stratford’s total water usage from 30.8% to 38.6% of available supply. Approximately 60% of Xinyi’s water usage will evaporate as steam, back to the atmosphere as part of regional or global hydrologic water cycle.

Float Glass production is a very clean manufacturing process. The wastewater released from Xinyi will not contain any toxic materials, and will comply with all of Stratford’s wastewater requirements for direct discharge to the municipal sanitary system and sewage treatment plant.
A tiny amount of fumaric acid in powder form is applied as interleaving medium to the surface of float glass. It is widely and commonly used to protect the glass surface from scratches and moisture during transportation and storage.
Fumaric acid has been addressed in Section 5.5 of Functional Servicing and Stormwater Management Report, prepared by WalterFedy:
“Based on the process operation, and its usage in the production line, only 96 m3/day of wastewater discharge will contain trace quantity of Fumaric Acid, at a concentration of less than 5 ppm (parts per million).”
For general information, Fumaric acid is an organic acid widely found in nature, and it is commonly used as food additive.
According to the Canadian Government website – a List of Permitted Food Additives with Other Accepted Uses, the permissible level of Dioctyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate (Fumaric Acid) in finished drinks is 10 ppm. Xinyi’s use of Fumaric acid is diluted to 50% less than consumed beverages.