Saint Gobain to further invest Rs 1K cr in TN

Float glass manufacturer Saint Gobain India, a subsidiary of France-based Saint Gobain, today announced a further investment of Rs 1,000 crore at Sriperumbudur near here, taking its cumulative investments in Tamil Nadu to Rs 3,000 crore.
This investment will be used for setting up its third float glass plant and new magnetron coater plant at Sriperumbudur.
The company, which set up its first manufacturing unit at Sriperumbudur with an investment of Rs 500 crore in 2,000, rapidly expanded and made a total investment of Rs 2,000 crore, Saint Gobain India Managing Director B Santhanam said.
"This will be our very, very significant step. We are making additional investment of Rs 1,000 crore. With this, the total cumulative investment in Chennai would be Rs 3,000 crore," he told reporters.

Currently at the World Glass Complex, Sriperumbudur, the company has two float glass plants with total capacity of 1,500 tonnes.
"With the launch of the third new float glass plant, the total capacity will go up to 2,500 tonnes. These investments are not only for Tamil Nadu, or India, it is for the entire Asia Pacific region..," he said.

Elaborating, Santhanam said the plant would be serving Africa, Middle-East, ASEAN countries and Oceania region.
"The plant will become operational by mid-2017 and the job potential will be 300-400 in the region," he said.
Saint Gobain India has registered revenues of Rs 5,000 crore and "we expect about 30 per cent more" in terms of revenue", he said.

On setting up second magnetron coater plant, he said the total capacity to manufacture will go upto 144 million square foot of "high performance, high-selective, energy-efficient glass from the present 100 million square foot, mainly catering to overseas market".
Responding to a query, he said the cumulative glass industry was valued at Rs 10,000 crore.
Stating that the proposed plants were part of Central government's "Make in India" campaign, Santhanam said, "It is nice to know that it is possible to do (manufacture in India) in our own backyard."
"The world glass complex in Sriperumbudur has become a regional manufacturing hub for value added products in the Asia Pacific region," he said.

Saint Gobain India had signed an MoU with Tamil Nadu government during its maiden Global Investors Meet in September 2015, for setting up the new float glass plant and magnetron coater plant.