Aims to capture 25% market share by 2012
Kolkata headquartered HNG Group, the parent company of Hindusthan National Glass and Industries Ltd., has entered the float glass segment with the firing up of its first float furnace in Halol, Gujarat. Starting up with a production capacity of 600 tonnes per day, group subsidiary HNG Float Glass Ltd. aims to capture upto 25 per cent market share in the next two years.
For further upscaling, the plant has provision for a second float line which can support an additional 850 tonnes per day.
The plant has been financed by its parent company HNGIL, International Finance Corp., a subsidiary of the World Bank and DEG, Germany with a debt equity ratio of 60:40. Mukul Somany, joint managing director, HNG said, "Our foray into the float glass segment is to further expand our horizons in the glass industry. The first set of production is expected to be ready by the end of December 2009. There is a huge expanding market for float glass in the country resulting from the growing realty and auto sector. Also, the extremely low per capita consumption of only 0.7 kg in India as compared to average of 8-10 kgs of other developing economies, gives a tremendous potential for growth of this industry." The company intends to target all the medium of sales such as dealer network as well as institutional and shall manufacture products from the thickness of 2mm to 12mm. The company has tied up with M/s Toledo Engineering Co. (TECO), USA for design, engineering, installation and commissioning of the float glass plant and has also joined hands with global players like CNUD (Belgium) and Bottero (Italy) for procuring essential equipments.
At present, the plant will start with manufacturing clear float glass and will also make available tinted glass in grey, bronze, green, and blue, heat reflective glass (soft coat and hard coat), lowE glass, low iron solar glass, ultra clear glass and automotive quality glass to the market.
HNG has a 60 per cent plus market share and an annual income of more than Rs. 1500 crores, as recorded in FY 09. The other companies under the HNG wing are Glass Equipment (India) Ltd. (GEIL), Ceramic Decorators Ltd. (CDL), Somany Foam Limited (SFL) and Quality Minerals Ltd. (QML), AMCL Machinery Ltd, HNG Float Glass.