Saint-Gobain’s Rs 830 cr unit goes on stream

Saint-Gobain Glass, which kicked off operations at its Rs 830 crore second float glass unit, is gearing up to step up investments in its automotive glass solutions spread.

Saint-Gobain Glass, which kicked off operations at its Rs 830 crore second float glass unit, is gearing up to step up investments in its automotive glass solutions spread.

The automotive glass production facility will now expand the capacity at its Sriperumbudur plant. The two lines put in place, as part of the second phase of expansion, are for

laminated and toughened glass for the automotive sector. The announcement of the expansion of these lines, is expected to be made in a couple of months’ time.

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Saint Gobain Glass supplies raw glass to its Pune-based sister company Saint Gobain Sekurit India which caters to the automotive glass market. The second phase of investment has taken its total investment at the Tamil Nadu plant to Rs 1,400 crore.

Meanwhile, the company will also be making an investment of Rs 100 crore for setting up a separate production line for offline coated glasses with architectural application by the end of this calendar year, said R. Subramanian, National Manager.

Saint-Gobain, which is in the process of launching its reflective glass range, is now indigenising its production. ‘‘Currently, these products are entirely imported, but we are setting up a separate production line for them by the end of this calendar year,’’ Subramanian said.

The company, with a 26 per cent share in the Rs 1,700 crore raw glass market, sees the bulk of the market (72 per cent) in the construction sector.