° Slovenian manufacturer Steklarna Hrastnik will invest €8 million in a container line upgrade, according to a company press release. The installation of the new B-furnace is scheduled for August and September and will require 250 people working 24 hours a day for 48 days. The new furnace will increase the capacity and quality of production of bottles, currently at 120 tonnes, to up to 140 tonnes per day at twice better quality glass.
° Vivix of Grupo Cornélio Brennand, the Brazilian company based in Goiana, PE, has announced the start-up of a new complete float glass plant with an annual capacity up to 880 metric tons per day. The plant, which has been designed and provided by Fives, has been tailored to produce automotive, mirror, and architectural glass, with 60 percent of its output dedicated to architectural, 5 percent to automotive, and 30 percent to mirror glass.
° Mineral sands miner Iluka may be facing a class action, after law firm ACA Lawyers announced on Monday that it had obtained funding to start proceedings against the company on behalf of shareholders. The suit will allege that Iluka failed to comply with its continuous disclosure obligation and engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct. ACA Lawyers’ principal Steven Lewis said that the class action would seek compensation on behalf of Iluka shareholders who acquired their shares between May 2012 and July 2012. It will be alleged that Iluka’s zircon sales forecast in May 2012 was overly optimistic and not achievable. In July of that year, Iluka substantially downgraded its forecast for zircon sales to between 200,000 tonnes and 300,000 tonnes, having previously informed the market in May that zircon sales would be around 400,000 tonnes. As a result, Iluka’s share price crashed 24 percent, from $11.70 to $8.88 a share.