• Corning Inc. has opened a liquid crystal display glass substrate manufacturing facility in China. It is located in the Beijing Economic Technological Development Area and is the company’s second thin-film transistor-liquid crystal display glass production facility in China.
• Turkish glassmaker Trakya Cam signed a memorandum of understanding to buy German group Fritz Holding, which makes glass coating and molded parts for the automotive industry. Trakya Cam said it planned to expand its capacity and develop its products in the automotive glass business by making the acquisition.
• Asia Glass has begun construction on an innovative glass plant in the southern Kazakh city Taraz; the construction of the plant will lead to the creation of 600 jobs. The plant is expected to produce 370 million units of glass containers on an annual basis. Construction of the plant will take 18 months to complete, while production is anticipated to begin in the first quarter of 2015.
• Riou Glass of France has completed its acquisition of a 50-percent stake in Eurofloat from Saint-Gobain Glass France. Eurofloat is based in Salaise-sur-Sanne, France.
• Calderys has recently acquired Arefcon b.v., a refractory installation company based in the Netherlands and mainly focused on the petrochem industry. Through this acquisition, Calderys is reinforcing its ability to deliver turn-key projects to the petrochem sector.
• MZI Resources Ltd. is proposing to mine and process around 56 million metric tons of sand on Bathurst Island over eight to 10 years. The mine is estimated to produce around 890 thousand metric tons of heavy mineral concentrate including zircon and titanium for the Chinese market.