Indian glass co launches US$55m expansion plan
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 06 January 2011 15:49
- Written by Trina Tan
INDIA – One of India’s largest glass packaging companies, Hindusthan National Glass & Industries Ltd (HNG) has invested about US$55.32 million (Rs2.5 billion) so far to implement an aggressive growth plan involving the doubling of its existing production capacity through greenfield and brownfield expansions over the next three years.
Over the past month, HNG has signed deals with suppliers such as Emhart Glass of Switzerland, German companies Heye Glass, Pennekemp, Horn Glass and Zippe to purchase equipment and technology to improve production processes and help it better serve customers.
Another US$553.21 million (Rs 25 billion) worth of investments are in the pipelines, said HNG, without revealing further details.
According to HNG, the Indian glass packaging industry is currently growing at 7-8% percent annually and this growth rate is predicted to boom at 12-15% over the next 10 years, due particularly to the liquor and beer market segment, which is growing at a rate of 12%.
Mukul Somany, HNG’s Vice Chairman and Managing Director, said, “In our endeavour to attain excellence we have been continuously making huge capital investments.
“To succeed in our aggressive growth plan, we are finalizing technology and equipment, which will enable us with processes to match the best in the world. This will also help us offer quality products to our customers that are benchmarked against the world’s best.”
The investments
Emhart Glass, a world-leading supplier of equipment, controls and parts to the glass container industry will be providing HNG with its latest glass bottle forming machines. It will also be supplying state of the art BIS machines to be installed for the first time in Asia.
To strengthen HNG’s focus on the development of the unique Narrow Neck Press and Blow (NNPB) technology, the Indian converter is purchasing state of the art equipment from Heye Glass, a global supplier of equipments to the glass container industry.
Annealing lehrs have been ordered from Pennekemp, a leading company offering technically advanced solutions.
For the greenfield project in Naidupeta, HNG will be installing what it says will be the world’s largest batch house to be supplied from ZIPPE and the world’s largest furnace for container glass to be provided by HORN Glass.
Somany added, “With our decades of experience and knowledge of Indian market we are confident of selling the capacities being added.”
About HNG
The HNG group, headquartered in Kolkata, was founded in 1946 and has since grown to become India’s largest container glass manufacturer enjoying about 55% market share. Its pan-India manufacturing operations are spread over six centres Rishra, Bahadurgarh, Rishikesh, Puducherry, Nashik and Neemrana and its products are available in more than 20 countries. The company possesses an operational capacity of 11 furnaces and 44 production lines with fully-automated IS machines.