Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) You have your first question from the line of Greg [Garned] from Singular Research.
Greg Garned - Singular Research
Thank you and good morning. First of all, congratulations on a great quarter -- a question I have just about the outlook for ramp-up of the new Zibo facility. I just want to make sure I understand this correctly -- it says in the release, and I believe it was mentioned in the comments, that the additional 60,000 metric tons brings total capacity up to 250 but the expectations for the end of the year was that the total 250 was going to be at 80% or is this the new 60,000 that’s added on, is that going to be operating at 80%? This is what I am trying to clarify because if it’s the 250 operating at 80%, that means about only an additional 10,000 metric tons for the rest of the year, whereas if it’s the additional 60,000 operating at 80%, that’s quite a bit more.
Andrew Chen
Zibo, it is supposed to start production at the end of -- scheduled to start production at the end of August and we will start the shipment to customers at the beginning of September and gradually the production will be ramping up toward the very end of the year, it is going to be reaching an annualized capacity of 60,000 tons. However, during the remaining months of 2009, it is going to be producing an additional about 12,000 tons of products. So if you -- so when we say 80% utilization, we are referring to the 250,000 tons times 80%. That’s going to give you a total production of the company for 2009 so if you deduct 190,000 tons produced by [Xianshe] and also the [Tian] facility, you are going to actually get results about 12,000 tons will be produced at the Zibo facility this year.
Greg Garned - Singular Research
Okay. Can I ask one more question or --
Crocker Coulson
Yeah, sure, we’ll take one follow-up.
Greg Garned - Singular Research
Just the tax rate was quite low here, just about 10.5%. How should I look at the tax rate for the rest of the year?
Andrew Chen
It is expected to be between 12% to 15% for the rest of the year.
Greg Garned - Singular Research
Between 14 and 15?
Andrew Chen
Between 12% to 15%.
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