In the light of the slowdown in the real estate sector, Hindustan Sanitaryware and Industries Limited (HSIL) is shifting its focus on container glass manufacturing, which currently accounts for over 40 per cent of the company’s turnover of about Rs 750 crore.
“Essentially the focus is now shifting to glass manufacturing,” Anil Kumar Dukkipati, president of AGI Glaspac, a strategic business unit of HSIL, said adding there was no recessionary effect on the Indian glass packaging industry at present.
Last month, AGI commissioned its second container glass manufacturing plant at Bhongir, about 50 km from here. The new unit, set up at a cost of Rs 250 crore, has a 450 tonnes per day (tpd) capacity. It would annually produce 650 million containers, including bottles and jars for liquor, beer, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages. Its other unit at Sanatnagar here has a 500 tpd capacity, which makes 950 million containers a year.
Dukkipati told Business Standard that HSIL turnover from the glass container unit was expected to be Rs 550 crore in 2008-09 as against Rs 330 crore in the previous year.
According to Dukkipati, who is also the spokesperson of the All India Glass Manufacturers' Federation (AIGMF), the country's glass container industry is growing at about 9 per cent per annum for the past 8-9 years. The growth rate has now reached the double digit figure and the size of the industry has increased to Rs 4,500 crore today from Rs 4,000 crore last year.
Proliferation of the pharmaceutical, food and beverages industry in the country besides growing awareness among the consumers about the advantages of glass when compared to other forms packaging, has contributed to the growth of the container glass industry, he said.
AIGMF has launched 'Traceability' campaign to stop unwarranted usage of recycled bottles by manufacturers of food and pharma products. Traceability refers to identifying the bottles with a particular period of manufacture. The campaign is aimed at making manufacturers to mark the period of manufacture on the glass bottle.
Explaining the need for traceability in glass packaging, Dukkipati said producers of food and beverages and pharma products should have only one time use of bottles to avoid contamination. However, producers of soft drinks and beer were exempted from the campaign as they “have legible business model on reuse of glass packaging.”