HNG aims to double Halol capacity

Hindustan National Glass & Industries Ltd (HNG), the country's leading container glass manufacturer, that forayed into the float glass segment in January this year with its Halol plant near Vadodara is now eying to more than double its production capacity by adding another line of 800 tonnes per day(tpd) in the coming months.

The flagship company of the Kolkata based C K Somany Group plans to have a 25 per cent share of all India float glass production within the next two years.

It set up a 600 tpd float glass plant at Halol with an investment of Rs 600 crore that became operational in January 2010. "We have kept provision to add another 800 tpd line at the plant. Currently, we have started one furnace, but would work on the second line soon depending on market demand.", informed Mukul Somany, joint managing director of HNGIL. Starting a second line would not require much additional investment, and detailed figures are yet to be worked out.

"The float glass industry has seen explosive growth in the last three months, growing at around 20 per cent, buoyed by demand for both architectural and automotive glass. We will start automotive glass production at the Halol facility from April onwards, and for starters, nearly 20-25 per cent of the net production would be for automotive glass,” Somany explained. The automotive glass industry is now dominated by Asahi India which enjoys an 80 per cent market share. HNG, the leader in the container glass segment with a 65 per cent market share is a new entrant in the automotive segment.

Meanwhile, the company is also scouting for potential overseas acquisitions that would further strengthen its container glass portfolio.

Somany said, "We have zeroed in on two possible units, one worth Rs 250 crore, another around Rs 500 crore in South East Asia and the Middle East. We can expect a deal to come through in the next three to five months. Both the companies are in the container glass segment".

He did not want to give out further details. The company has a production capacity of 2800 tpd in container glass bottles.

Interestingly, of the company's six container glass manufacturing units in India, barring the two in Bahadurgarh near Delhi and Rishra near Kolkata, all other facilities have come to its fold through acquisitions. The plants are located at Rishikesh, Neemrana in Rajasthan, Nashik in Maharashtra and Pondicherry.