• Austrian fireproof materials maker RHI is considering building a new plant in the United States, the company said, to join the growing number of European industrial firms attracted by cheap energy prices across the Atlantic. RHI said it would make a decision in the fourth quarter and could invest about €50 million to build or take over a plant.

• Vesuvius said it expects its 2013 revenue to fall following restructuring and disposals. Trading has been broadly flat this year and production of steel and foundry has been affected by difficult market conditions; production fell 5.0 percent in Europe and North America in the first four months of the year, offsetting a 6.4 percent growth in Asia.

• Pretoria Portland Cement Company of South Africa plans to build a 1 million metric tons per year plant costing $200 million in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The South African cement producer aims to make at least 40 percent of its sales outside of South Africa by 2016.

• Australia’s CSR Ltd. has warned its Viridian glass division will be a continued drag on earnings in the year ahead, even after a reorganization and a $196 million provision booked in the latest financial year.

• PPG Fiber Glass has sold its 50 percent interest in the PPG-Devold glass fiber joint venture to Hexagon Devold. The 50-50 joint venture was created in 2007 to manufacture glass fiber reinforcement fabrics for use in turbine blades for wind energy.

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• At meeting on May 3, the supervisory board of RHI AG approved a concept presented by the management board to adjust the production capacity in Europe to the growth rates, which are expected to stay low in the future. For this reason, the Duisburg plant in German will be closed this year. The Duisburg site currently employs 122 people and primarily produces magnesia-carbon bricks for the steel industry.

• Is glass cullet burning in US?: 1) In Lawrenceburg, W.V.: A pile of recycled glass caught fire Friday afternoon in Lawrenceburg, releasing a smoke cloud that could be seen for miles away. Fire officials in Anderson County received the from the Dlubak Glass Co. on Industry Road, that one of their piles of glass was engulfed in flames. 2) In North Las Vegas, Nev.: Fire officials are investigating what caused a glass recycling plant to go up in flames on May 5 afternoon. It happened near Craig and the I-15. Firefighters said the wind was a huge concern, because it helped the fire accelerate quickly; the plant was open and operating at the time of the fire, and firefighters estimated the flames grew to nearly 50 feet.

• Talga Resources has discovered near surface, high grade flake graphite in first drilling at its Raitajärvi project in northern Sweden. Importantly, initial assays have delivered both high grades over significant thicknesses and broad zones of mineralization not previously recorded by historic works.

• Alcoa has sent a fresh wave of nervousness through its 2,800-strong Western Australia workforce after announcing it could close more of its global aluminium operations because of the metal’s continued price decline. In yet another indication of the tough conditions sweeping through the global aluminium market, Alcoa said yesterday it would review 460,000 metric tons of smelting capacity over the next 15 months “for possible curtailment.”

• The globally respected entrepreneur Chandra Kumar Somany (known to the glass industry fraternity as “C K”), has been honored with the 43rd Phoenix Award, “Glass Person of the Year 2013.” Somany is presently serving the HNG Group as the non-executive chairman.

• Ardagh Group and US food processing company HJ Heinz have formed a packaging development partnership to create a 300g jar for the European launch of a new culinary ketchups range.

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• A Longueuil facility that prepares about 70 percent of Quebec’s glass for recycling is shutting down, and the company’s management says it isn’t sure where the glass will end up. Klareco processes more than 100,000 metric tons of glass in Quebec each year and sends most of it to the United States, where it is used to make insulation.

• Emhart Glass, a division of Bucher Industries, and Owens-Illinois, Inc. have signed a supplier agreement for glass forming machines and parts to all of O-I’s plants worldwide.

• Siam Glass Industry Co., Thailand, has reconfirmed its collaboration with Bottero. Having recently started up its new Rojana plant (with one furnace and three IS12 T.G. 4 ¼ machines, and a recent negotiation for the upgrade of two machines in the Samutprakarn plant), Siam Glass has decided the supply will once again come from Bottero.

• RHI has acquired an additional 26 percent share of Orient Refractories Ltd., India, through a public offer. The group had bought a 43.6 percent of the share of Orient in early March.

• Mexico’s Vitro is to invest more than $146 million to increase its melting capacity in its glass containers and automotive glass divisions; 89 percent of the budget will go to operations in Mexico, mainly to increase the manufacturing capacity of some of the furnaces and to improve and update its plants.

• The managing director of Sphinx Glass has declared that processing high quality flat glass will witness a strong growth in Egypt within the upcoming years, in the light of the domestic economic growth as well as growth in exports, especially to emerging markets in Africa, Middle East and North Africa, and Southern Europe.

• On May 1, 2013, ANH announces to customers its successful emergence from bankruptcy on April 30, 2013; ANH and its affiliates originally filed for bankruptcy in the first quarter 2002.

• Refractory maker Vesuvius India Ltd. (VIL) will soon make the new manufacturing unit at Visakhapatnam operational. According to the company sources, this would be the third plant of VIL in the port city of Andhra Pradesh. VIL has four operating units in the country; the two existing Andhra Pradesh units have a capacity of 60,000 metric tons a year. The new unit will host an R&D centre.

• Officials with the Corhart Refractories plant in Buckhannon, WV, say up to 64 of the plant’s 150 employees will be temporarily laid off starting July 1. Corhart makes refractory products for the glass industry. Spokesman Bill Seiberlich of parent company Saint-Gobain SEFPRO said demand for some products in the industry has declined recently.

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• Allied Glass Containers Ltd has recently successfully completed a major investment program at its Knottingley site, which involved a complete melter and forehearth rebuild. The project, which started in January has resulted in a larger furnace with increased production capacity and improved environmental performance.

• Saverglass is strengthening its industrial presence worldwide recently by opening in the Middle East its new Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, a production site. Saverglass, the world specialist in manufacturing and decorating luxury and high-end bottles, inaugurates a furnace to produce more than 150 million bottles peryear, and 120 employees are expected to be running the plant.

• Through the acquisition of Scheuten’s stake in “Moustier4,” AGC Glass Europe has acquired the total share capital of the joint venture that constitutes the Belgium-based float production line located in the AGC Moustier plant.

• Magnezit Group, in the framework of the project for production of magnesia fluxes, has successfully launched a line with annual capacity of 50,000 tons at Panteleymonovka Refractory Plant (settlement Panteleymonovka, town Gorlovka, Ukraine). The production facility was organized from scratch and will reach designed capacity this year.

• Mineral sands miner Iluka Resources cut production by nearly half in the March quarter (compared to March 2012), and will reduce it even more as prices fall. Poor prices and weak demand led to a 21 per cent fall in mineral sands revenue of $139.9 million, from $177.1 million in the same period last year.

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• Aruvian Research presents analysis of Asahi Glass Co. A complete and comprehensive analysis of Asahi Glass Company includes an overview of the industry the company operates in, and then moves on to analyzing the company itself.

• Also, beginning May 1, 2013, Asahi Glass Co. will integrate operations at its Kansai plant and Takasago plant, Japan. Both located in the Kansai area, the plants have operated separately for the manufacturing of glass substrates for display devices, specialty glass for display applications and other display glass.

• In May 2012, Glaston Corp. initiated legal proceedings in China against Luoyang North Glass Technologies (Northglass) and Luoyang Land Glass Technologies (Landglass) regarding patent infringement cases. The Patent Reexamination Board in Beijing has now given decisions to invalidate Glaston’s patents in question based on Land Glass’ and North Glass’ invalidation claims filed after the infringement suits. Glaston said it was disappointed by the decisions and will take further action.

• Zimbabwe Glass Industries (Zimglass), the country’s sole glass manufacturer, is still reeling in financial woes seven months after the company resumed operations. The company resumed operations in September last year following a $7 million cash injection after the firm had taken a two-year hiatus, which saw one of the furnaces being renovated.

• SA companies that participated in cartel activity in the glass manufacturing industry face prosecution by the [South African] Competition Tribunal following an investigation by the Competition Commission. The commission’s investigation, which started in 2010, showed that Glass South Africa, National Glass, Northern Hardware and Glass, Furman Glass, McCoy’s Glass, and AF-FSL Glass fixed minimum selling prices.

• At its meeting on April 4, 2013, the RHI Supervisory Board approved the annual financial statements 2012 of RHI AG and the consolidated financial statements 2012. The preliminary results of the RHI Group as published on March 8, 2013, are thus confirmed.

• Alkane Resources has completed a definitive feasibility study (DFS) for its Dubbo Zirconia Project in New South Wales that estimates an initial 20-year life and a net present value of Australian $1.23 billion. The DFS has confirmed a technically and financially robust project which will deliver a total life of mine EBITDA of A $5.23 billion from a 1 million ton per annum operation. The Dubbo Zirconia Project is a strategic and alternate source of zirconium and heavy rare-earth products with a resource capable of very long term supply.

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